The Witch of the Neuroi
by Sky EXE
Summary: Yoshika Miyafuji is a part of the experimental 500th Joint Fighter Wing, the Proto Witches. When she is betrayed by her superior officer, the Neuroi take her in. What would happen when she encounters the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, the Strike Witches, four years later?
1. Chapter 1

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Ch.1: The Betrayal, and the New Family**

* * *

The year was 1940. In the air above Gallia, a Witch was sobbing in despair as three Neuroi surrounded her.

'_After all this time…after all my struggles…I'm going to be abandoned…? Like a used toy…?'_ the Witch, whose name was Yoshika Miyafuji, thought to herself.

Yoshika Miyafuji was a part of an experimental fighter squadron. The squadron was called the 500th Joint Fighter Wing, also known as the Proto Witches, which was founded in 1939; just two months after the Neuroi first appeared. But even if the name states "Witches", Yoshika was the only Witch assigned to the 500th JFW. The JFW was supposed to be getting more Witches, but none could be spared at the moment.

Why was Yoshika crying in despair? The answer to that is simple.

She was betrayed.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Yoshika received Intel that a flight composing of three Neuroi was inbound towards a convoy that was shipping supplies needed for the war efforts against the Neuroi. The convoy's reported destination was Dover, where a base was being built._

"_Lieutenant Miyafuji." General Trevor Maloney said. "Your mission is to take down the three Neuroi that are targeting a convoy that is shipping supplies to the base in Dover that is under construction. Do not let the Neuroi sink that convoy, as those supplies are vital to completing that base. A flight of fighters will be assisting you against the three Neuroi, so you will not be alone. The intercept point will be above Gallia. Am I making myself clear?" Maloney asked._

_Yoshika, who by now has a shoot down record of 49 Neuroi and had the rank of First Lieutenant, saluted. "Yes, sir!" Yoshika exclaimed._

"_Then you are dismissed." Maloney said._

_Yoshika saluted again, before walking out of the room and to the hangar._

_Maloney smirked. "Stupid girl, following orders without asking. That convoy has already arrived at Dover two days ago. She won't be getting that fighter backup at all. This is a perfect opportunity to get rid of her. With her gone, I can finally move on to the Warlock Project."_

* * *

_With Yoshika, she hopped into her Striker Unit and prepared for take-off. _'If I can shoot down at least one of those Neuroi, I will be the first Witch to have a shoot down record of 50 Neuroi. Then Fuso, my homeland, will be known to have some of the greatest Witches in the world!'_ Yoshika thought as she grabbed her gun, a Type 99 Aircraft Cannon made in Fuso, and took off._

_Thirty minutes later, Yoshika was above Gallian airspace, looking for the Neuroi._

"_Am I too late?" Yoshika thought, before activating her magical ability, "Telescoping Search Eye"._

_What this ability does is allow the user to zoom in to look at far away targets while picking out details of its weaknesses. The sight can even pierce any form of obstacle, so it also acts like x-ray vision. The user can also use this ability to find the Core of a Neuroi, which is invaluable if you don't want to waste any ammo trying to find the Core, only to run out once you find it. This ability is also perfect for sniping; once you see your target, a targeting reticule appears allowing for ultra-long-range sniping. And since the magical targeting reticule automatically adjusts to wind speed, wind direction, gravity, etc., the accuracy is almost always perfect. Unlike the "Magic Eye", this ability can be turned on and off at will, so there's no need for an eye patch, and the ability works for both eyes as well._

_Using her ability, Yoshika found the three Neuroi that were reported in the distance, heading for Dover. "Can't have that happening. Although, now that I think about it, my fighter backup hasn't arrived yet. Are they late?" Yoshika mused, before flying towards the Neuroi while deactivating her magical ability after confirming where the Cores were._

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

_There were three Neuroi in this flight. The first one looked like an oversized B2 Spirit. The second one looked like a huge modern day submarine. The last one, interestingly enough, looked like a ball made up of around fourteen large spikes._

"_**So, when are we going to reach the place that the humans call "Dover"?"**__ The first Neuroi asked._

"_**We will arrive in approximately thirty minutes."**__ The third Neuroi confirmed. __**"So be patient, Ixia!"**_

"_**But I want to kill the humans now!"**__ The first Neuroi, now known as Ixia, whined. __**"Besides, Xalia, I know you want to kill the humans, too!"**_

"_**Both of you calm down!"**__ The second Neuroi yelled. __**"You must remember the mission. Besides, this whole war started because the humans misunderstood our original intentions."**_

_Ixia and Xalia both calmed down. __**"Yeah, you're right Axion."**__ Ixia said._

_At that point, Xalia perked up. __**"Well, well. Looks like one of those "Witches" have come to greet us."**__ Xalia said, noticing the approaching Witch (who is Yoshika, BTW)._

"_**That's odd. Only one of them?"**__ Axion asked. __**"Something isn't right here. There are usually at least two or three Witches with each other at all times. Ixia, Xalia, you two engage the Witch, I will monitor communications between the Witch and anyone that she contacts."**__ Axion said firmly, leaving no room for arguments._

"_**All right, Axion. The two of us are counting on you. Let us know when enemy reinforcements are coming."**__ Ixia said, before he and Xalia turned to engage the approaching Witch._

* * *

_With Yoshika…_

_Yoshika was rapidly closing in on the three Neuroi, when two of them, one that kind of looked like a bomber while the other was a ball composed of fourteen large spikes, turned to engage her, while the one that looked like a submarine hanged back, as if to observe her._

"_Bring it on!" Yoshika shouted, aiming her gun at the first Neuroi and opened fire as the two Neuroi did the same._

'Something isn't right. Why isn't the one that's hanging back firing at me?'_ Yoshika thought, dodging the beams fired from the first Neuroi's large wings as some of her bullets hit it, making it screech in annoyance._

_Then the second Neuroi started firing beams from the tips of its spikes at her, making her throw up her shield. The first Neuroi followed suit, firing beams as well._

"_Damn, this isn't good." Yoshika said, firing at the spot where the Core is located on the first Neuroi._

_The second Neuroi, seeing the plight of the first, then did something that horrified Yoshika; the fourteen spikes all separated from each other, while one of them held the Core._

_Yoshika gasped at seeing what the second Neuroi did, and desperately tried to call Maloney, her superior officer, as she was being swarmed. "General Maloney, please come in! I need my fighter backup NOW! I'm being overwhelmed here!" Yoshika yelled through the intercom._

_Maloney picked up. "I am _SO_ sorry, Yoshika Miyafuji. But you won't be getting your fighter backup. You won't be getting any backup at all." Maloney replied._

_Yoshika paled. "W-What do you mean?" Yoshika desperately asked._

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

_Axion listened to the Witch now known (to them, at least) as Yoshika Miyafuji talk to her superior now known as Maloney with interest. __**"Ixia, Xalia, stop your attack."**__ Axion ordered. __**"This just took an interesting turn."**_

"_**What do you mean?"**__ Ixia asked._

"_**Listen to this."**__ Axion replied, before allowing the other two Neuroi to listen in on the conversation Yoshika was having with Maloney._

* * *

_With Yoshika…_

"_Like I said, you won't be getting any backup." Maloney repeated._

_Yoshika paled. "What? But why?!" Yoshika asked, alarmed._

"_Idiot girl. That convoy arrived at the base two days ago. I knew that you would jump at the chance of becoming the first Witch to shoot down over 50 Neuroi, and I also know that Witches work best as a team, so sending up a single Witch against two or more Neuroi is suicide. Luckily for me, that's exactly what I want you to do; I want you to die. With you out of the way, I can finally declare the Proto Witches as a failed experiment, and can move on to my next project." Maloney explained. "Can't you see it yet? I was using you this whole time, allowing you to rise through the ranks so that your death will shift attention away from me. The brass will think you died honorably, and will leave it at that. Now do you see it? I basically abandoned and betrayed you, and sent you to your own death. Now, goodbye. You were a good subordinate, but you have outlived your usefulness." Maloney said, before cutting off the connection._

_Yoshika only dropped her gun in shock, letting it fall into a river where the water clogged it up and ruined it. Tears were filling her eyes, and she broke down crying right in front of the three Neuroi._

_Flashback End_

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

Ixia, Axion, and Xalia were shaking with rage, not that you could tell. **"I never imagined that the humans would stoop so low…"** Ixia growled, as the three Neuroi approached the crying Yoshika.

"**What do we do with her?"** Xalia asked. **"Killing her the way she is now would be dishonorable. And I HATE being dishonorable. That Maloney human is the most dishonorable…THING…in existence!"**

"**Hmmm…"** Axion hummed in thought, pulling himself next to the crying Witch. **"How about we bring her back with us?"** Axion asked.

Ixia and Xalia were silent, but then, "**ARE YOU CRAZY?!"**

"**Think about it."** Axion said. **"If we show her the true reason why we came to this planet, which was to learn about everything about this planet, including its plants, animals, atmosphere, etc., we can recruit her on our side. Wouldn't having our own Witch give us an advantage? She knows the weaknesses of some of the bases, and we will have a chance to study her shield as well."** Axion reasoned.

Ixia and Xalia were shocked into silence; now that they thought about it, it sounded like a really good idea. **"But how will we communicate with her? If what I know about humans is correct, they hear our language as screeching."** Ixia said.

"**Leave that to me. Once we get back to the Hive, we can inject a spare Core into her, which will let her understand our language."** Axion said.

Ixia and Xalia agreed.

* * *

_With Yoshika…_

Yoshika was still crying her heart out. _'All this time…I was being used…'_ She thought, before turning to the three Neuroi. "P…Please…kill me…" Yoshika pleaded. She didn't want to live in this world any longer.

To her shock, the three Neuroi flew right next to her, and the one that looked like a submarine (Axion, in case you didn't know) gently nudged her.

"Wh…What do you want…?" Yoshika hesitantly asked, shocked that the three Neuroi weren't going to kill her.

The Neuroi that looked like a submarine turned and flew away for a few seconds, before flying back to her in response.

"You…you want me to follow you?" Yoshika asked.

The submarine Neuroi moved its front end down, and then back up. A nod.

'_Well, what have I got to lose?'_ "A…All right…" Yoshika replied, before following the three Neuroi back to their Hive.

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

As the group of four travelled to the Hive, the three Neuroi were talking amongst themselves as the Witch that was with them was desperately trying to understand what the Neuroi were saying.

"**Well, this is an interesting turn of events."** Ixia said.

Xalia agreed. **"Tell me about it. This is the last thing that I ever expected to happen."**

Axion looked at the Witch, who, after calming down, decided to have a seat on his "bow" to have a rest, taking off her Striker Unit and feeling him with her hands curiously as she gazed at him in wonder. **"Heh. Look at the Witch. She's **_**teeming**_** with curiosity. I feel like what those humans call an idol."** Axion said, chuckling.

At that point, the group arrived at the Hive, while the Witch looked at it with wide eyes; she had always wanted to learn the reasons why the Neuroi came to Earth, and now it looked like she was going to get her chance.

* * *

Inside the Hive, other Neuroi were flying about. One of them noticed Ixia, Axion, and Xalia return. **"Did you complete your mission?"** the Neuroi asked.

"**No,"** Axion replied **"but we picked up something WAY more important. Call off the capture teams, because we just scored ourselves a live Witch."**

At this, all the other Neuroi (minus Ixia and Xalia) stopped what they were doing, and crowded around Axion, making the Witch hide behind his "mast".

"**How the HELL did you pull that off?!"** a Neuroi asked.

"**The Witch was betrayed in one of the worst possible ways. When she learned about it, she **_**begged**_** us to kill her, but we decided to bring her here instead.**" Axion explained as the Witch came out of hiding to look at the Neuroi, relaxing slightly knowing that she wasn't being attacked just yet. Now that she thought about it, the Neuroi looked like they were curious about her.

"**Did the Witch bring her…what was it called…oh yeah, "Striker Unit" with her?"** a different Neuroi asked.

"**She did, and I have it right here."** Axion said, dematerializing a small portion of his armor to reveal the Striker Unit that he covered up to avoid it being blown away while flying. **"I need a spare Core to inject the Witch, whose name is Yoshika Miyafuji by the way, so that she can learn our language. Can you do that?"** Axion asked.

"**We certainly can."** Another Neuroi said, as it led Axion (who was still carrying Yoshika and her Striker Unit) near the Hive's Core, which had a single spare Core floating around it. The Neuroi pulled the spare Core out of its orbit around the central Core and shrunk it to the size of a human heart. It then held the shrunken Core up in front of Yoshika, who looked at it curiously.

"What are you going to do…?" Yoshika asked curiously.

In response, the Neuroi that was holding the Core created a long, thin needle pointing from the front of it and gently tapped the side of it to Yoshika's throat, then at the spare Core, and then tapped the Witch's ear. After doing so, the Neuroi dematerialized the needle.

The Witch was confused at the gesture, but then perked up. "Oh, so you're saying that with this, I can understand you?" she asked.

The Neuroi "nodded" the best it could.

"Well, okay." Yoshika replied, spreading out her arms. "Do what you must."

The Neuroi, after getting the Witch's approval, immediately injected the spare Core into Yoshika's chest, causing her to scream in pain. After a few seconds of screaming, the pain stopped, and she found herself floating slightly.

"**Can you understand me?"** Axion, who was still holding Yoshika's Striker Unit, asked.

Yoshika whirled around to look at Axion's "mast". "I-I understood that!" Yoshika exclaimed.

The Neuroi that injected the spare Core left the area.

"**So you can. My name is Axion."** Axion introduced himself as Ixia and Xalia flew up next to him. **"And the one with the wings is Ixia, and the one with fourteen spikes is Xalia."** Axion introduced the other two Neuroi that had engaged her earlier.

"**Hi there."** Ixia said. **"Sorry about earlier."**

"No, it's all right." Yoshika replied. "Maybe being half-Neuroi won't be all bad. That reminds me. Why did you come to this planet in the first place?" the young Witch asked.

This made the three Neuroi "blink" in surprise. **"A curious one, aren't you?"** Xalia asked.

Yoshika blushed in embarrassment. "W-Well, I always thought that you didn't come to Earth just to simply declare war on us. So, I was curious…"

The three Neuroi chuckled. **"And you are correct. Come this way."** Axion said as he, Ixia, and Xalia flew off.

At that point, Yoshika finally noticed that she was floating. "Wh-Wha?! I-I'm floating! Hey, you guys! How do I move?!" Yoshika called desperately.

This made the three Neuroi turn around. **"Just will yourself to move, and you should move."** Ixia said simply, before he and Xalia flew to the Hive's Core (the four were travelling around the Hive during their conversation).

But Axion stayed behind. **"I'll stay with you until you master flying."** Axion said.

Yoshika giggled. "Thanks for the support. You know, you're kind of acting like a big brother who's protective of his little sister, and I'm the little sister." The Witch said, still giggling as she got the hang of flying without her Striker Unit. Surprisingly, she found that it was easier to fly the way she was now than when she had her Striker Unit.

Axion "blinked" in surprise. "**A big brother?"** Axion asked, before noticing Yoshika had mastered flying using the Neuroi Core's power. **"Follow me." **Axion said, flying to the Hive's Core.

Yoshika followed her "big brother".

When the two arrived at the Hive's Core, they found Ixia and Xalia waiting for them. **"Took you long enough."** Ixia scolded.

"Yeah, well, I had to get used to flying without my Striker Unit first. Surprisingly, it's much easier the way I'm flying right now, using the Core's power." Yoshika said.

This time, Ixia and Xalia "blinked".

Axion "cleared" his "throat". **"I believe our guest has asked us on why we came to this planet."** Axion reminded them.

"**Oh, right."** Ixia said, before accessing the databanks in the Hive Core and pulling up several screens, taking Yoshika by surprise.

On the screens, Yoshika saw all the worlds that the Neuroi visited, and everything that they did. Surprisingly, the only time they fought other alien species was when the Neuroi were attacked first.

"So, the Neuroi came to this planet to learn about it?" Yoshika asked, before the screens shifted, showing Neuroi fighting against each other. Some had red markings, while others had purple markings. "What's going on?!"

"**We Neuroi are in a civil war."** Axion explained. **"The Neuroi King and his followers, against the Neuroi Queen and her followers. The Neuroi King wants to learn about everything about the universe before taking it over for himself, while the Neuroi Queen wants to learn about everything in the universe and live in harmony with all other sentient species. This Hive follows the Neuroi Queen and her ideals. All we want to do is learn about this planet, and protect it from the Neuroi King."**

"How can you tell which Neuroi follows who?" Yoshika asked, her curiosity peaked.

"**You can tell who follows who by the color of the markings and beams. Those loyal to the Queen have red markings, while those with purple markings are loyal to the King."** Ixia explained. **"The only reason why I want to kill some humans is because they attacked us first when we came to this planet."**

Yoshika winced. She didn't know that the Neuroi were already in their own struggle when they came to Earth. She can also sympathize with Ixia; she WAS betrayed, after all.

"Umm… can you…teach me how to fight…?" Yoshika asked hesitantly.

This made the three Neuroi "blink". **"Umm…sure."** Axion replied.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Ch.2: The Encounter, and the New Threat**

* * *

_Four Years Later…_

In the night, Sanya was humming a song to keep herself occupied. Noticing a flash of light to her left, she looked to see a transport plane that belonged to the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, aka the Strike Witches, which Sanya is also a part of.

On the mentioned transport plane sat three Witches.

"Grumpiness is written all over your face, Major Sakamoto." said Minna.

"They called us all the way out here to tell us they're cutting our budgets. Of course I look grumpy." retorted Mio.

"They're feeling frustrated too, given that we're the only ones producing results in the war." Minna replied.

"The only thing they see is their own position." Mio countered.

"That's just how the warmongers are. Had the Neuroi never appeared they might be warring with each other right now." said Minna.

"It'd be like a world war, I bet" said Mio, who then turned to the younger blonde Witch to her right. "Sorry Hartmann. I was hoping to show you around a town in Britannia since we're here, but…"

"It's okay," Ursula Hartmann, a Witch/researcher who transferred over to the Strike Witches recently, replied "You can always show me around another time." At this point, the three Witches could hear singing. "Umm, do you hear something?" Ursula asked.

"Oh, that's Sanya singing." answered Minna, looking out the window "We must be near the base."

The singing suddenly stopped, puzzling Ursula, and putting Mio and Minna on edge. "What's wrong, Sanya?" Minna asked.

"Someone is watching us…" Sanya said in a soft voice.

"You need to report clearly and loudly." Mio said.

"I'm sorry," Sanya apologized, and then continued "An unknown aircraft is approaching from the direction of Sirius."

"Is it a Neuroi?" Minna asked.

"Yes, I'm almost certain of it." Sanya answered "It's not moving at a normal aircraft's speed."

Mio lifted her eye patch, exposing her purple "Magic Eye". "I don't see it, though…" Mio said.

"It's in the clouds." Sanya stated "It can't be detected with the naked eye."

"What are we supposed to do in this situation?" Ursula asked.

"I know it's vexing," Minna said "But there's nothing we can do without our Strikers." Minna then realized something. "You don't think they planned on that?" Minna asked.

"The Neuroi aren't capable of such complicated strategies." Mio replied.

"Target continues to approach at high speed." Sanya said, reminding them of the current situation. "Three minutes to contact."

"Sanya," Minna said "You'll need to buy us time until backup can arrive. Avoid engaging it to the best of your ability."

"Yes, ma'am." Sanya said, turning off the safety of the rocket launcher she was carrying. "Breaking away from target."

"Watch closely, Hartmann." Mio said.

"Sanya knows where the Neuroi is?" Ursula asked.

"Yes." Mio confirmed "She can even see things that are beyond the horizon."

Ursula whistled, finding a new respect for Sanya.

"That's why we always leave her in charge of night patrol duty." Minna said

Sanya then flipped over, aiming her rocket launcher through the clouds and firing two rockets, both of them striking the Neuroi. "It's not attacking back?" Sanya asked in confusion, firing more rockets.

"Just as I thought." Minna said. "She's doing well against an enemy we can't see…"

"But I don't see a Neuroi at all…" Ursula said.

"What Sanya says is definitely correct." Mio said.

* * *

Far off in the distance, beyond the range of Sanya's "Magic Antenna", Yoshika was viewing the battle using her "Telescoping Search Eye". After the Neuroi retreated, Yoshika decided to head back to the Hive in Gallia.

* * *

Back at the base, all the Witches were gathered in the living room, Mio explaining what had happened.

"Then, does that mean no one saw the Neuroi but Sanya this time?" Trude asked.

"That's because it was hidden in the clouds and wouldn't come out." Mio explained.

"But she said it didn't fight back." Erica said "Does that ever happen? Are we sure it was really a Neuroi?" Erica asked.

"A shy Neuroi, perhaps?" Lynne asked.

"Maybe so." Ursula replied.

"Sanya, Ursula, Eila, you three are assigned to the full-time nighttime team." Mio ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!" the three Witches replied.

* * *

The next morning, all the Witches were in the dining room.

"Oh, blueberries! But why so many?" Perrine asked.

"My family sent them. Blueberries are good for your eyes, you know!" Lynne said, carrying a basket of blueberries.

"Down the hatch!" Erica said, digging into her bowl of blueberries.

"I have heard that nighttime pilots in Britannia eat them often." Trude said.

Ursula had finished off her bowl of blueberries when Lucchini walked up to her. "Ursula! Shirley! Stick out your tongues!" Lucchini said, sticking out her tongue, which was purple from eating blueberries. Ursula and Shirley also stuck out their tongues, which were also purple. The three blinked, and then started laughing up a storm.

"Honestly! How trite can one get?!" Perrine asked.

"What about _you_?!" Eila asked, pulling back Perrine's lips to reveal her purple teeth.

Mio looked at Perrine, and walked off saying, "All things in moderation."

Perrine was tearing up in pure embarrassment. "H-H-How could you do that, Eila?!" Perrine yelled.

"Hmmm?" Eila said, walking away grinning. "I didn't do anything."

'_Delicious.'_ Sanya thought, eating another spoonful of blueberries.

* * *

"All right," Mio said "Now that breakfast is over, go to sleep to prepare for night duty!"

"Huh?" Ursula asked. "But what about mine and Dr. Miyafuji's research?"

"That can wait until after we deal with this Neuroi." Mio said with finality.

"Fine…" Ursula relented.

* * *

The three Witches were in Sanya's room, which was completely dark, save for the tiny amount of light that seeped in through the bottom of the door.

"I just woke up, too…" Ursula complained "Why did they have to make the room pitch black?"

"They want us to get used to the dark." Eila answered.

"Sorry they did this to your room, Sanya." Ursula apologized.

Sanya shook her head. "This is how I like my room." Sanya said.

"If you're bored, let's do tarot cards." Eila offered.

"Tarot cards?" Ursula asked.

"Fortunetelling," Eila explained "I can predict the future using magic. I can't see very far, though…" Eila said, laying her tarot cards face-down on the bed. Ursula picked one up. "Let me see…" Eila said, looking at the card before getting a grin on her face at which card it was; the Justice card. "Well! It seems you'll learn the truth about the reasons of a past event." Eila said.

Ursula was confused. _'I wonder what she's talking about…?'_ Ursula thought to herself.

Eila plopped down on the bed, fast asleep. Before falling asleep herself, Ursula noticed a date circled on Sanya's calendar. The date was August 18, which Ursula assumed was Sanya's birthday. Her eyes widened. _'Sanya's birthday is the same day as mine is.'_ Ursula thought to herself.

* * *

_That evening…_

"It's sundown! Up and at 'em!" Lucchini called into the room.

"It seems kind of dark." Ursula said, sitting down next to Lynne.

Lynne nodded. "They said it's training to get our eyes used to dark environments." Lynne said.

"What's this?" Ursula asked, looking at the liquid in the teacup in front of her.

"It's marigold herbal tea!" Perrine exclaimed "It's said that this can improve your eyesight, too!"

"Oh," Lynne said "But isn't that an old folk myth?"

"How rude! I'll have you know this was passed down from my grandmother's grandmother's grandmother!" Perrine yelled, growling.

"S-Sorry…" Lynne apologized.

"Ursula! Lynne! Stick out your tongues!" Lucchini said, sticking her tongue out, which was normally colored. Lynne and Ursula did the same, revealing that their tongues were also normally colored. Lucchini's left eye was twitching in annoyance at not finding anything funny. "That's no fun!" Lucchini yelled.

"That joke bombed." Eila said, grinning to herself. Perrine scowled at Eila, but didn't say anything.

Sanya took a sip of the marigold herbal tea. _'Yuck…'_ Sanya thought to herself.

* * *

Eila, Sanya and Ursula were out flying conducting nighttime flight training.

"So this is what it's like to fly at night…" Ursula trailed off, flying in formation with Sanya and Eila.

"This is our mission." Sanya said.

Ursula stared at Sanya, puzzled by what she meant.

* * *

The next morning, all the Witches were in the dining room.

"What's this?" Perrine asked, looking into a teacup.

"Lamprey liver oil!" Ursula said "It's full of vitamins and good for your eyes!"

Erica sniffed it. "It smells kinda fishy." Erica said.

"Well, it _is_ fish oil." Trude said "Flavor doesn't matter as long as it's nutritious." Trude then took a sip, before recoiling in disgust. "…I take back what I just said." Trude admitted.

Perrine was laughing up a storm. "That's Hartmann for you!" Perrine taunted "What a truly rustic choice!" Perrine continued laughing, unaware that she also taunted Erica, whose left eye was twitching in annoyance.

"Actually, I'm the one who brought it." Mio said.

Perrine quickly shut up, hearing what Mio said. Turning around quickly, Perrine grabbed the cup of fish oil while saying, "I-I love fish oil!" Grabbing the cup, Perrine quickly gulped down its contents, only for her eyes to widen at the horrible taste.

Ursula took a sip from her cup. "I don't see what the problem is. This is just as good as tea." She said.

"What is this?!" Lucchini asked in disgust.

"There's engine oil that tastes like this…" Shirley trailed off in thought.

Eila was spitting it out of her mouth, while Sanya just put her cup down.

"They used to force me to drink this when I first joined." Mio admitted, scratching the back of her head sheepishly "I was at a real loss."

"I can completely sympathize…" Perrine grumbled, trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

"Refill, please!" Minna requested with a smile. Erica was slowly backing away from Minna in disgust, but froze at what her sister did next.

Ursula snatched the carton of fish oil from Mio's hands, and proceeded to chug down the entire carton. All the Witches looked at her in disgust, except Minna, who pouted at the loss of such a good tasting beverage.

"Do you have any more?" Ursula asked in a sweet tone, giving back Mio the now empty carton.

* * *

"Ugh…" Ursula groaned in pure boredom. "Where are you two from?" Ursula asked.

"I'm from Suomus." Eila answered.

"Orussia." Sanya answered.

"Oh, I know where those are." Ursula said, but then had a thought. "Hey, Sanya…" Ursula said.

"What is it?" Sanya asked.

"What happened to your family?" Ursula asked.

"They fled east when the Neuroi attacked my hometown." Sanya answered "They fled over the Ural Mountains and far past."

"That's a relief." Ursula said.

"How is that a relief?" Eila asked "Weren't you just listening?"

"But that means they can see each other again someday, because not every Witch's parents are still alive, you know." Ursula pointed out.

Eila winced at that thought. "…Yeah, I guess you're right."

* * *

That night, Sanya, Eila, and Ursula were out flying again.

"Say, listen." Ursula said.

"Huh?" Eila and Sanya asked.

"Today is my birthday!" Ursula exclaimed.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?!" Eila asked.

"Things have been so hectic that I forgot to mention it." Ursula admitted.

Sanya looked down.

"What's wrong, Sanya?" Ursula asked.

"Well, you see," Eila replied "Today is also Sanya's…"

At that moment, Sanya's "Magic Antenna" started to rapidly change color, causing her to gasp.

"What is it?" Eila asked.

The three Witches then heard something akin to the song Sanya usually sings.

"What is that?" Ursula asked.

"It's a song!" Eila answered worriedly.

"How…?" Sanya asked to herself.

* * *

At the base, the same song could also be heard. "Is this a Neuroi's voice?" Minna asked.

"Is it trying to mimic Sanya? Where is she?" Mio asked with concern in her voice.

"She should be conducting nighttime flight training with Yamakawa's group." Minna answered.

"Call them back at once!" Mio ordered.

"We can't! There's no telling where they are in these conditions!" Minna said, worried.

"I see," said Mio "So the enemy's after Sanya!"

* * *

Back with the three Witches, the three were getting worried.

"Is it the enemy, Sanya?" Eila asked.

"Is it a Neuroi? Where is it?" Ursula asked, getting her gun ready.

"Escape, you two!" Sanya suddenly ordered, who then flew straight up.

Suddenly, a purple beam pierced through the clouds grazing Sanya's left Striker Unit, forcing her to eject it before it exploded seconds later.

"Sanya!" Eila shouted, flying after Sanya with Ursula following her.

Eila caught Sanya, and then yelled, "You idiot! What are you trying to do all by yourself?"

"I'm the enemy's target!" Sanya replied "There's no question about it. Get away from me... If you stay with me, you'll..."

"Don't be stupid! What are you saying?" Eila stated.

"We can't do that!" Ursula yelled.

"But..." Sanya started, but was surprised when Eila grabbed her rocket launcher.

"What are you going to do?!" Ursula asked while carrying Sanya.

"Give me the enemy's location, Sanya." Eila said "It's all right. I can read the enemy's actions ahead of time, so they won't get me. That thing isn't you. _It_ may be alone, but _you've_ got us!"

Ursula gave Sanya a reassuring grin. Sanya nodded.

"The Neuroi is heading straight this way, on the line connecting Vega and Altair. Approximate distance of 3,200." Sanya said, giving the location of the inbound Neuroi.

"Like this?" Eila asked, positioning the rocket launcher.

"It's speeding up. Aim closer." Sanya corrected "There. Three more seconds."

"Now hit it!" Eila yelled, firing several rockets.

Another purple beam was fired at the trio, who dodged it. The rockets all hit their mark as the Neuroi flew beneath them, retaining its cloud cover.

"I missed it?!" Eila asked.

"No, it's slowed down." Sanya said "It's sustained heavy damage. It's coming back!"

"Don't come back!" Eila yelled, firing more rockets at the Neuroi. To the trio's shock, the Neuroi dodged the rockets.

"It dodged!" Ursula warned.

"Damnnit, show yourself!" Eila cursed, firing the last rocket in the launcher. This time, it was a direct hit, and the Neuroi revealed itself, although it was going too fast for the Witches to get a good look at it.

"There it is!" Eila and Ursula said at the same time. The Neuroi was fast approaching. Thinking quickly, Eila discarded the now empty rocket launcher in favor of her machine gun, firing away at the Neuroi.

"Eila, no! Run!" Sanya pleaded.

"There's no time for that now!" Eila replied.

Ursula threw up her shield, still carrying Sanya on her back.

"Good thinking!" Eila complimented.

"It's okay! I know we can win!" Ursula encouraged.

"This is what a team is all about!" Eila finished.

Sanya then grabbed Ursula's machine gun, firing at the Neuroi. The Neuroi, which had purple markings, swerved left and right, avoiding most of the shots as it continued to charge.

* * *

Ten miles away from the fight, a certain submarine-like Neuroi with red markings was charging in.

Axion thought back, remembering his Commander's orders.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Axion, along with all the other Neuroi in the Hive, were facing their Commander next to the Hive Core. Their Commander, Yoshika Miyafuji (who now wears a Neuroi Striker Unit), has brought several major victories for the Neuroi by leading them to the complete takeover of Gallia while allowing the civilians who wanted nothing to do with this war to evacuate; that was a policy that Yoshika had, which was shared by all the other Neuroi of the Hive, _"Spare all those who want nothing to do with this war"_. Their Commander has been flying around recently, although none of them knew why. When questioned, Yoshika only stated that she had to check something out. Now she had called them all for an emergency meeting._

_Yoshika had changed ever since she first arrived at the Hive. First, besides being injected with a spare Core to allow her to understand the Neuroi, her Striker Unit was (with her consent) taken to the Hive's R&D sector, where the Neuroi there were able to reverse-engineer it and had built a Neuroi Striker, at the request of Yoshika, and had been given to her for her use. Then, Yoshika allowed them to study her shield, resulting in tactics being developed to get around it. They found one weakness to the shield; only one can be created at a time. In other words, when a Witch blocks beams from one direction, her flanks are vulnerable. But the Witches know this, and usually dodge every chance they get. Some Witches don't have this weakness, though; because those that don't can throw up multiple shields at a time, and there were reports about a Witch that has never thrown up a shield in her life (the reports are talking about Eila, BTW), which led Yoshika to believe that that Witch's magical ability is "Foresight". When Yoshika explained to them what she knew about the "Foresight" ability, the Neuroi were amazed; being able to see a few minutes into the future, it was no wonder that nobody could hit the reported Witch. Yoshika also explained her magical ability, "Telescoping Search Eye", to the Neuroi, as well as the cost of using it; if she uses it for more than ten minutes at a time, she will go blind for twenty-four hours, and every time she deactivates it, she must wait for at least five hours before she uses it again, no matter how long she has used it before the ten minute mark. In other words, the "Telescoping Search Eye" cannot be used very often. She had taught them everything she knew about magic as well. Yoshika had also come up with an ingenious idea for the Neuroi; since she sees them as an extended family of sorts, she has come up with a way to duplicate their individual Cores and link the duplicates to their respective originals on the quantum level, allowing the originals to see and learn everything that the clones learn, and vice-versa. Using this, the only Neuroi that were sent out were clones, since Yoshika found out that it was impossible to duplicate a Core from a cloned Neuroi. Instead, she has opted to train the originals that stay in the Hive about everything she knows about the Witches, the tactics that she know of, the aerial maneuvers that the humans use (in both Striker Unit and fighter plane), the technology that the humans use, and about all the weaponry that she knows of, allowing them to transfer everything they learn to their respective clones, who use the information on the battlefield. The clones, meanwhile, rack up battle experience and learn about new tactics that the Witches employ (some of which have surprised Yoshika greatly), and send that data to the originals at the Hive. But Yoshika isn't selfish; she also sees the cloned Neuroi as an extended family of sorts, and treats them all equally (although she is VERY close with Axion, Ixia, and Xalia. Not romantic wise, but as close family). However, Axion, Ixia, and Xalia opted to not have themselves cloned; Xalia said that it was dishonorable, and Ixia and Axion just didn't want to be cloned period._

"_**What is so important that you had to call every single one of us in the Hive for, Commander?"**__ Ixia, one of Yoshika's elites, asked._

"_My worst fears have been confirmed…" Yoshika said._

"_**What would that be?"**__ Xalia, another one of Yoshika's elites, asked._

"_The Hive in Karlsland has been destroyed, but not by humans. But rather, it was destroyed by Neuroi sent by the Neuroi King." Yoshika said grimly._

_At first, all the Neuroi were silent. But then, __**"SAY WHAT?!"**_

"_It happened too fast for the Neuroi at the Hive in Karlsland to call for help. I was investigating why the Hive at Karlsland suddenly stopped reporting in, and I found out about the takeover. The current Hive that is in Karlsland…is a Hive loyal to the Neuroi King." Yoshika explained. "Axion, I need you to stay here for a minute. Everyone else is dismissed!" Yoshika ordered, and all the Neuroi except Axion left to go do what they were doing before, while they were all thinking about what they learned from their Commander._

_Axion, who was another one of Yoshika's elite Neuroi, turned to his Commander. __**"What is it that you need from me, Commander Yoshika?"**__ Axion asked._

_Yoshika smiled. "Axion, when we're alone, there's no need for formalities." Yoshika said, but then her face turned serious. "While I was scouting, I came across a Neuroi that is loyal to the Neuroi King and manage to sneak into the Hive currently in Karlsland. I learned about an attack that will take place in about two days from now. Their mission is the elimination of one of the Witches of what the humans call the 501__st__ Joint Fighter Wing, also known to the humans as the Strike Witches. Your mission is to eliminate the Neuroi that is targeting the Witch from that Joint Fighter Wing. Not only will this confuse the Witches, but it will also make them aware about our civil war. If we can successfully bring another Witch into the Hive and show them the truth, we might have a chance for peace." Yoshika explained._

_Axion "nodded" the best he could. __**"I understand. You want this war to be over as quickly as possible with the least amount of casualties. That is something that all the Neuroi that are loyal to the Neuroi Queen want; peace. I will carry out my mission."**__ Axion said._

_Axion was surprised when Yoshika came up to him and hugged his "mast". "Just please…don't die. You were the first Neuroi to show kindness to me, and I wouldn't know what to do if you died." Yoshika said softly. "Please…come back to me in one piece." Yoshika requested, as well as ordered._

_If he had a mouth, Axion would have smiled at his Commander's worrying. __**"I promise to come back alive." **__Axion said. __**"Now I must leave, unless you want me to fail this mission."**_

_Yoshika stopped hugging him and looked at him with a serious gaze. "You're right. Now go out there and kick the ass of that Neuroi who's loyal to the Neuroi King!" Yoshika exclaimed._

_Axion chuckled. __**"With pleasure."**__ Axion said as he left the Hive to fulfill his mission._

_Flashback End_

* * *

Axion saw the Neuroi that was targeting the Witches, and charged in.

* * *

_With the Witches…_

Sanya's "Magic Antenna" suddenly started changing colors again, causing her to gasp as the Neuroi that the three were facing steamrolled right through their formation as the three dodged, Ursula managing to keep her hold on Sanya. "Another Neuroi has shown up!" Sanya called as all their weapons ran out of ammo.

"Damn! Why now of all times?!" Eila asked/yelled as the second Neuroi came into view. It looked like a submarine of some sort.

Then, to the Witches' immense shock, the second Neuroi, which had red markings, fired red beams at the first Neuroi which had purple markings, making the first Neuroi screech in pain as well as surprise. The second Neuroi never stopped its barrage of beams, and soon enough, the first Neuroi was destroyed.

Sanya, Eila, and Ursula were dumbstruck.

Then the submarine-like Neuroi turned to face them, making the three tense. But instead of attacking them like they expected it to, the submarine-like Neuroi turned around and flew off, back to the Hive in Gallia.

The three Witches could only stare.

"…I…I think we should report this…" Ursula said, breaking the silence.

"…Agreed…" was all Sanya and Eila could say as the three turned and flew back to base.

* * *

Back at the Hive, Axion had just returned from his mission when Yoshika confronted him. "How was the mission?" Yoshika asked.

"**It was a complete success. That Neuroi who was loyal to the Neuroi King didn't even know what hit it."** Axion reported.

Yoshika nodded. "Excellent work. While you were gone, Ixia decided to get himself a new form, one that he thinks would work best for him. Ixia, come here." Yoshika ordered.

Ixia flew into view, revealing his new form. (I don't know how to describe it. It's basically a Neuroi version of the XB-70 Valkyrie, with firing ports on the tops and bottoms of the wings, the fuselage, and the nose. It is also covered with black armor with a hexagonal pattern).

Axion "whistled". **"Wow, Ixia. That form really DOES suit you."** Axion complimented.

"**I know."** Ixia agreed. **"I have a whole lot of what the humans call "firepower" in this form. I can also deploy up to thirty of what the humans call "drones" to add to the "firepower" when needed. I can also fly really fast, far faster than what the humans call "the speed of sound"."**

"**Even though I can deploy up to twenty-two "drones", I never really felt the need to do so."** Axion replied.

"Okay, you two. That's enough. Now, let's go get some rest." Yoshika said as she yawned tiredly.

Ixia and Axion agreed, and the three went to get some rest. Even if the Neuroi didn't need to rest, their Commander did since she was half-human and half-Neuroi, but even then Yoshika only needed a few hours of rest at the most. The only reason that the other Neuroi rest is because they find it relaxing.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Ch.3: The Incoming Threat, the "Invincible Trio", and More Questions Raised**

* * *

In the Gallian Hive the next morning, Yoshika woke up bright and early so that she can begin planning on how to handle the new threat. _'If what I know about the Neuroi King is correct, once he chooses a target, he doesn't let up until that specific target is eliminated. I need to report this to the Neuroi Queen right away.'_ With that thought, Yoshika went to the Hive's Core and made an emergency call to the Neuroi Queen through the hub.

Interestingly enough, the Neuroi also have their own "telephone line" of sorts, except that no actual phones are used, and it is impossible for the humans to intercept the calls in general. The only ones who can intercept the calls are Witches that have "Magic Antenna" (not like they can understand what the Neuroi are saying, unless they happen across one of Yoshika's calls [even though Yoshika can understand the Neuroi's language, she can't speak in said language]).

After waiting a few moments, the Neuroi Queen opened the connection from her end, making a screen with the Neuroi Queen's face pop up. Yoshika quickly bowed, and reported in. "My Queen, we have a serious problem."

The Neuroi Queen was worried; over the last four years, Yoshika and the Neuroi Queen had become close friends, up to the point that Yoshika sees the Neuroi Queen (who I will call Xeila from now on) as a big sister. Yoshika had proven herself time and time again in their struggle against humanity, and has earned Xeila's respect as a Commander. Xeila knew that Yoshika reported in only once a month to update her on the Gallian Hive's status, and had just reported the status six days ago. For Yoshika to report in so soon after the last transmission, it must be an emergency.

"**What is it, Yoshika?"** Xeila asked.

"The Hive located at Karlsland has been destroyed, but not by the humans. It was destroyed by Neuroi loyal to the Neuroi King, and a new Hive loyal to the Neuroi King has already been established at Karlsland." Yoshika reported.

Xeila "gasped" the best any Neuroi could. **"This is troubling indeed. Is there anything else?"** Xeila asked.

"There is one more thing…something that honestly scares me." Yoshika said, shivering slightly. "I have intercepted a transmission saying that the Neuroi King has sent a Super Hive to this planet, and that it will arrive in two months."

Xeila was close to panicking, but recomposed herself quickly. **"I will send our own Super Hive in response to this. If I send it now, it should arrive two days after the one sent by the Neuroi King arrives."** Xeila declared.

"Please do so. We will need all the firepower we can get." Yoshika said. "…Honestly, why can't this war just end already?" Yoshika asked to herself, but forgot to close the communication line when she said it.

Xeila "sighed". **"I know. I want peace just as much as you do, Yoshika."** Xeila said, and then cut the line from her end.

Yoshika closed the line from her end as well. "…Alright, it's time to start training." Yoshika said, before gathering up all the Neuroi in the Hive (both cloned and original), and started some more training; after she broke the news to the rest of them, that is.

* * *

_With the Witches…_

That morning, all the Witches were in the briefing room when Minna called them to attention.

"Everyone, I need your attention." Minna called, getting everybody's attention. "Sanya, Ursula and Eila all have something to report. They said that it was something that we all needed to know, and refused to tell Mio and me until now. Sanya, Ursula, Eila, if you would?"

The three Witches stood up, getting the attention of everyone else in the kitchen.

"It's about last night…" Sanya said.

"What happened?" Shirley asked.

"Well…we ran into the Neuroi that was spotted a few days ago last night, and we would have been killed, if we weren't saved at the last second." Eila continued.

"You were saved?" Mio asked. "Who was the Witch that saved you?"

"That's the thing." Ursula replied. "It wasn't a Witch…it was a Neuroi."

At first, silence. But then, "SAY WHAT?!"

"Why would a Neuroi save you?!" Trude asked.

"I don't know." Eila replied. "When I looked into the future with my magic regarding the matter, it was strange, because all I saw were red and purple beams all across the sky."

"The Neuroi that we went up against last night had purple markings and fired purple beams, instead of the usual red markings and beams." Ursula reported.

"The Neuroi that saved us, however, DID have red markings and beams." Eila continued.

"…I…I think there is more to this war than we know about…" Sanya said softly, but everyone heard her.

"I think you're right…" Ursula mused.

"This…is an interesting development." Mio said. "What did the Neuroi that saved you look like?"

"Oh, well, it looked like some kind of submarine." Eila said.

Mio paled; she knew what Neuroi Eila was talking about. "Wait a minute…" Mio said, pulling out a photo of a Neuroi on it. "Did it happen to look like this?" Mio asked, as she gave the photo to Sanya.

Sanya, looking at the picture, nodded. "Yes. It looked just like that." Sanya said.

"This isn't good…" Mio mused, which got the attention of the other Witches. "That specific Neuroi is one of the so-called "Invincible Trio", and everyone that faces off against those three have all lost. Interestingly enough, every Witch that the trio has defeated was never killed, and even though the three were present during the evacuation of Gallia, they never fired until all the civilians were evacuated."

"That's _very_ unusual behavior for Neuroi, don't you think?" Trude asked.

"Yes, it is." Erica replied, wide awake.

That was when the door opened, and a man walked in. "I heard everything." The man said.

"Dr. Miyafuji, when did you get here?" Mio asked.

"Me and my family just got here a few minutes ago, but I heard everything." Ichiro replied. "What you just said is indeed strange behavior for the Neuroi. I need to look into this."

Ursula nodded. "Now that you're here, I can finally complete my research on rocket-powered Striker Units." Ursula said.

"I looked at the notes for the rocket Striker that you've sent me." Ichiro said, pulling out some papers. "The design is promising, and the top speed is extraordinary."

Shirley perked up. "What's the top speed?" Shirley asked.

"The top speed is 1137 km/h." Ichiro replied, getting wide eyes from Shirley. "But the Striker Unit itself has a fatal flaw; it sucks up magic far too quickly to be able to be sent into combat, unless it's point-defense."

Minna nodded, having already been notified about the prototype. "Very well. All Witches, dismissed!" Minna ordered.

All the Witches left the room, but Ichiro stayed behind. Seeing this, Mio stayed behind as well. "Is something wrong, Dr. Miyafuji?" Mio asked.

Ichiro pulled out another photo, one that had him, Sayaka, Akimoto, and a little girl on it. "Nothing. I'm just…thinking about my daughter." Ichiro replied.

Mio looked at the photo. "What's her name?" Mio asked.

"Her name is Yoshika Miyafuji." Ichiro replied. "Listen, Mio. What I'm about to tell you is classified as top secret. Under no circumstances are you to tell anyone else about this. Do I make myself clear?" Ichiro asked with a serious look on his face.

Mio nodded. "You have my word." Mio said.

"All right. You know how the 501st Joint Fighter Wing is the first JFW ever made?" Ichiro asked.

Mio nodded with a confused look on her face. "What are you talking about? Everyone knows that we are the first JFW ever made." Mio replied.

Ichiro shook his head. "Well, that's a lie." Ichiro said, earning a surprised look from Mio. "The TRUE first JFW that was ever made was in fact the 500th Joint Fighter Wing, also known as the Proto Witches. It was created only two months after the Neuroi invaded in 1939. "

"Where are you going with this?" Mio asked, not believing what she was hearing.

"Let me finish." Ichiro said. "The Proto Witches only had one Witch assigned to it at the time it was formed, and never got any other Witches assigned to it. My daughter, Yoshika Miyafuji, was the lone Witch assigned to the 500th JFW. She was a First Lieutenant and had 49 confirmed Neuroi destroyed." Ichiro explained, making Mio go wide-eyed. "Then, four years ago, Yoshika was killed in action. She was facing off against three Neuroi, the three which I believe are known as the "Invincible Trio". She was killed above Gallian airspace."

Mio was shocked, to say the least. She didn't know that Ichiro had a daughter, and that she was the only Witch in a top secret JFW, who was killed four years ago.

"That is why I throw myself into my work." Ichiro explained. "So that her death won't be in vain."

"Dr. Miyafuji…I didn't know. I'm sorry for the loss of your daughter." Mio said.

Ichiro shook his head. "It's all right. I'm sorry for making you listen to me." Ichiro apologized. "You would have gotten along with my daughter very well. Now, I need to go help Ursula." Ichiro said, and walked out of the room.

Mio stood where she was. _'So there was another Joint Fighter Wing before us? And it was top secret? Interesting…'_ With that thought, Mio left the room.

* * *

Far off in the distance, below the radar net and beyond Sanya's range of detection, Yoshika was flying just five feet above the water, observing the conversation using her "Telescoping Search Eye". Seeing that the conversation was finished, Yoshika turned off her ability to prevent herself from going blind with only seconds to spare. She then flew back to the Hive, all the while remaining under the radar net so as to avoid detection.

* * *

Back at the Hive, Axion, Ixia, and Xalia (aka, the "Invincible Trio") were waiting for their Commander. Seeing her approach, the three flew up to her. **"What were you doing?"** Ixia asked.

"I was spying on the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, aka the Strike Witches." Yoshika responded. "It seems as though they are confused at the moment, and that's what we want. If at least one of them decides to come here seeking answers, then that will be all the better for us, as it will give us the opportunity to show that Witch the truth."

The "Invincible Trio" agreed with their Commander's logic.

"**So, what do we do about the Hive that's loyal to the Neuroi King?"** Ixia asked.

"We will continue to observe them at the moment." Yoshika replied. "If that Hive sends out any Neuroi, then send out three of our own cloned Neuroi per enemy Neuroi to intercept them. If any of those Neuroi make a move to destroy the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, then I want you three to intercept and destroy those Neuroi. If we can shift their focus on us instead of the humans, then all the better."

"**I see. That's a good strategy. I suppose the reason why you want to send out three of our own per one Neuroi that is loyal to the Neuroi King is because they will be ready for us the next time, is that right?" **Xalia asked.

Yoshika nodded. "I see that I have trained you three well. Anyway, I overheard the humans referring to you three as the "Invincible Trio". If you ask me, that title seems rather fitting, don't you think?" Yoshika asked with a grin on her face.

The three chuckled, also agreeing with the nickname that the humans have given the trio.

* * *

_Six Days Later, With the Witches…_

The Neuroi alarm started blaring, causing all the Strike Witches to run to the briefing room.

"Reports indicate that three enemy craft are on their way here from Karlsland." Minna reported.

"Karlsland? The ones from the Hive there have never strayed this far before." Mio replied. "Although, besides that, the predictions were right for once."

"Yes. They're currently flying at 15,000 feet and straight for this base." Minna said.

Mio walked up to the front of the room. "All right. Our routine intercept pattern should suffice. Today's team will consist of Barkhorn and Erica at the fore and Perrine and Lynne at the rear. Ursula will be direct support for Minna and I. Shirley, Lucchini, Eila, and Sanya will remain at base on standby!" Mio explained.

"Holding down the fort! Holding down the fort!" Lucchini sang.

"Guess I'll tune my unit's settings…" Shirley said.

Sanya, predictably, was fast asleep.

"All right! Get ready!" Mio ordered, walking out of the room to the hangar, with Minna, Ursula, Trude, Erica, Perrine, and Lynne following.

Several minutes later, the seven Witches and took off.

"See you later!" Lucchini yelled, waving at them.

* * *

With the group, Mio saw three glints in the distance. "Targets sighted!" Mio exclaimed.

"What types are they?" Minna asked.

Mio lifted up her eye patch to reveal her "Magic Eye" and used it to zoom in on the three Neuroi, seeing that all three of them looked like cubes. It also showed that all three Neuroi had purple markings instead of the usual red, something Mio took note of. "All three of them are 300-meter class Neuroi! Our usual formation?" Mio asked.

"Yes!" Minna answered.

"Alright! Charge!" Mio ordered.

Erica and Trude dived in on the three Neuroi, and Perrine and Lynne did so as well but then the three Neuroi did something that none of the Witches expected.

They split into pieces.

"What?!" Trude asked, alarmed.

"They divided!" Mio exclaimed.

Minna used her magic ability, "Area Analysis", to determine the new number of Neuroi. "There's 240 on the right, 300 in the middle and 90 on the left!" Minna exclaimed, shocked at the number of Neuroi present.

"That's six hundred and thirty in all. We should all be getting the Medal of Honor after this one!" Mio exclaimed. "So, what's the plan?"

At that point, Shirley and Lucchini flew up to them. "The two of us figured you could use a hand after we heard how many there were." Shirley explained the reason she and Lucchini were there.

Minna nodded. "Mio, you look for the Core. Barkhorn's team will take the middle. Perrine's team will take the right. Shirley, Lucchini, and I will take the left. Ursula, you will act as direct support for Major Sakamoto." Minna ordered.

All the Witches present gave their confirmation.

"All right. All Witches, begin operation!" Minna ordered as she, Trude, Erica, Perrine, Lynne, Shirley, and Lucchini dived into the huge swarm of Neuroi.

* * *

_With the Neuroi, at the Same Time…_

Yoshika was training a group of Neuroi when another Neuroi approached her. "What is it?" Yoshika asked, making the group she was training stop what they were doing.

"**Three Neuroi loyal to the Neuroi King have engaged the humans known as the Strike Witches."** The messenger Neuroi reported. **"All three are cube-types that can each split into 210 mini-cubes."**

Yoshika's eyes widened, before she turned to the group she was training. "Training is cancelled for the day." Yoshika then turned towards the messenger Neuroi. "Get me Axion, Ixia, and Xalia, NOW!" Yoshika ordered.

"**Yes, ma'am!"** the messenger Neuroi said, before rushing off to call the three Neuroi that his Commander wished to see.

Two minutes later, the "Invincible Trio" appeared before their Commander. **"What is it that you need, Commander?"** Ixia asked.

"Three cube-type Neuroi loyal to the Neuroi King have made a move to destroy the Strike Witches." Yoshika said, surprising the trio. "You three are on an emergency mission to destroy those cube-types. If we can save the Strike Witches, they will want to seek answers, and we can show them the truth behind this foolish war with the humans, a war we didn't even want in the first place. Be careful, each of those cube-types can split into 210 mini-cubes each, making a total of 630 Neuroi you have to go up against. Now, show them what makes you three to be feared so much to be known as the "Invincible Trio"!" Yoshika ordered.

"**Yes, ma'am!"** the "Invincible Trio" exclaimed, and flew out of the Hive to complete their emergency mission.

* * *

_With the Witches..._

Down below, the fight was turning into what fighter pilots called a fur-ball. The Witches were moving constantly, firing on any Neuroi that they came across. Since there were 630 of them, there were plenty of targets to choose from.

"That's ten for me!" Erica said.

Trude flew next to her so they were back-to back. "I've got twelve!" Trude said. "Looks like this is a perfect chance to really up our kill-scores!

"Yeah, it's been really slow-going lately!" Erica exclaimed in agreement.

The two then separated as twelve Neuroi barreled in on them while firing purple beams.

* * *

Perrine and Lynne hovered above the fur-ball. "Listen, your gun isn't made for rapid firing! Fall back and aim!" Perrine ordered.

"Right!" Lynne said.

"You have my back!" Perrine said as she dived into the fray. Several Neuroi then surrounded her. Perrine grunted. "Using this always messes up my hair for the rest of the day…" Perrine complained while charging up her spell "Tonnerre!" Perrine yelled, firing off her electrical attack spell as it hit the surrounding Neuroi, destroying them. Perrine whipped some of her hair out of her face in an overdramatic way, unaware of a Neuroi sneaking up on her from behind. "For me, this is as easy as-" Perrine was cut off as the Neuroi, which was only two feet behind her and was about to fire a point-blank beam, was destroyed by a cannon shot. Perrine jumped (if that is even possible to do in a Striker Unit) in fright, then turned to see another Neuroi attempting to sneak up on her; but it too was destroyed by a cannon shot. Perrine looked up to see Lynne holding her sniper cannon, the end of the barrel smoking. "N-Not bad." Perrine said, and then emptied her gun to destroy a swarm of Neuroi, while Lynne emptied her sniper cannon by picking off the ones that went after Perrine.

* * *

Ursula looked at the battle raging below them. "They're all so good…" Ursula trailed off, before she noticed twenty-five Neuroi flying up at Mio, who was using her "Magic Eye" to look for the three that held the Cores, but wasn't having any luck. Right before they could fire, Ursula opened up with her gun, emptying it and taking out all twenty-five Neuroi.

"Keep it up!" Mio encouraged.

* * *

Shirley and Lucchini were flying around the swarm, shooting down every Neuroi they came across.

"Lucchini!" Shirley called, grabbing onto the Romagnan Witch. Using her magic, Shirley tossed Lucchini towards a large swarm of Neuroi.

Lucchini brought up five shields, progressing from the smallest in the front to the largest in the back, in preparation for her "Sunlight Strike" attack. Using her attack, Lucchini steamrolled through the large swarm of Neuroi, wiping them out. But then another swarm went after her and Shirley, putting them on the defensive. The duo quickly fired at the incoming swarms, emptying their guns as the two Witches destroyed them.

* * *

Erica, meanwhile, managed to get a good number of Neuroi on her tail and were all firing at her. Erica narrowed her eyes, and stopped in midair, allowing the Neuroi to overshoot her. Quickly catching up, Erica emptied her gun into the group, destroying them. "There's no end to them!" Erica exclaimed as she strapped her now empty gun to her back and was forced to use her "Strum" offensive spell as her only means left to attack the Neuroi, but she was quickly running out of magic due to using it over and over again.

"Where the hell are the Cores?!" Trude asked as she emptied both of her guns into two swarms of Neuroi, wiping them out. She was then forced to use her empty guns as clubs, batting away and destroying any Neuroi that she came across. But Trude was also becoming tired.

* * *

"Have you located the three Cores?" Minna asked, flying up to Mio after emptying her gun into a swarm of Neuroi.

Mio shook her head, noticing that all the other Witches have run out of ammo and were flying up to them. "No, not yet." Mio replied. "But it looks like all the other Witches have run out of ammo. There's just too many!"

"I know." Minna said grimly. "This may be it for us…"

At that point, all the other Witches were with them. "I've run out of ammo." Lynne said.

"Me, too." Shirley, Lucchini, and Erica said.

"I am out as well." Trude, Ursula, and Perrine said.

"So am I." Minna said. "I don't like it, girls…but I think this may be it for us…"

In total, the Witches were able to destroy 384 Neuroi, leaving 246 more Neuroi to kill, but they were all out of ammo.

All the surviving Neuroi, sensing this, surrounded the Witches and prepared to fire beams.

"Well, everyone. It was an honor to know you all…" Mio said, preparing for the end.

But then, something unexpected happened.

Suddenly, a barrage of red beams cut through the surrounding Neuroi, whom all screeched in surprise.

All the Witches were shocked as well, but Mio, thinking quickly, used her "Magic Eye" to see who fired the beams. Zooming into the distance, Mio saw three _eerily familiar_ Neuroi. The "Invincible Trio" had arrived.

"Th-The "Invincible Trio"!" Mio called, surprising the rest of the Witches as the three newly arrived Neuroi (Axion, Ixia, and Xalia, in case you didn't know) fired more beams, destroying the three Neuroi that held the Cores, which were purple. This caused all the other Neuroi that had purple markings to shatter.

The Witches all looked at their unexpected saviors, which turned to face them, making them tense. But instead of firing at them like the Witches expected the "Invincible Trio" to do, the trio turned around and flew back to the Gallian Hive, confusing the Witches greatly.

"…So…Sanya, Eila, and Ursula were telling the truth the entire time…" Minna mused, stunned by what just happened.

"I told you so!" Ursula exclaimed.

"We need to get back." Mio said. "I have no doubt Dr. Miyafuji would want to hear about this."

The rest of the Witches agreed, and they all flew back to base, questions filling their minds, and they wanted answers.

They were unknowingly cooperating with Yoshika's plan on revealing the truth to them.

* * *

_With the Neuroi, back at the Hive…_

Ixia, Axion, and Xalia flew back to the Hive, where Yoshika was waiting for them.

"How was the mission?" Yoshika asked. "Sorry for giving it to you on such a short notice."

"**No, it's all right." **Axion replied. **"The mission was successful."**

"Excellent. Now, the Strike Witches will want answers even more." Yoshika said. "If we can lure them into the Hive, we can finally reveal the truth behind this damned war, and bring it to an end."

The "Invincible Trio" agreed; they also wanted the war with humanity to end, so that they can focus on the civil war against the Neuroi King.

* * *

**A/N: Yup, I've decided to keep Dr. Ichiro Miyafuji alive in this fic. If you don't like it, then stop reading now, because he's going to stick around.**

**Anyways, review please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Ch.4: The Training Incident and Meeting**

* * *

At the Strike Witches base in Dover, Sanya was returning from her night patrol, yawning tiredly. Landing in the hangar and taking off her Striker Unit, she walked tiredly to Eila's room, mistaking it for her own. Opening the door, Sanya sleepily walked to Eila's bed, and plopped down on it, falling asleep before she even hit the mattress.

Eila woke up with a start. "Wha-?" Eila asked, now wide awake. She looked to her left, only to see Sanya fast asleep on her bed. "Sheesh! Only for today, got it?!" Eila asked, before getting off the bed, covering Sanya with het blanket. Eila then crouched down, and started to pick up Sanya's clothes, which were strewn about. "Only for today…" Eila mumbled, before holding Sanya's clothes close to her and started giggling.

* * *

Minna was in her office, thinking about their encounter with the "Invincible Trio", when the door opened. Looking up, Minna saw Mio with Ursula and Ichiro, while Ursula was carrying a box.

"Do you have a moment?" Mio asked as she, Ursula, and Ichiro walked into the room, closing the door behind them. "Sorry for using you like this, Ursula." Mio apologized.

"No, this is no problem at all!" Ursula replied.

"It's data." Ichiro explained. "About the Neuroi that Sanya, Eila, and Ursula faced from the other day."

"The Neuroi attacked on August 16th and August 18th." Mio explained. "We intercepted mysterious signals at each location each time it appeared."

"The frequencies are off, but their waveforms are extremely similar to Sanya's singing." Ichiro said.

"Yes…" Minna said softly.

"Singing?" Ursula asked, before remembering Sanya's song.

"It looks like we can assume the Neuroi was copying Sanya's actions." Mio said.

"Yes…" Minna said softly again.

"We should expand the level of analysis even further." Ichiro suggested.

Mio sighed, but agreed with Ichiro. "Things are going to get busy for a while." Mio said, and then looked at Minna. "I'd like to inform Barkhorn and Erica now as well. Call them here."

"Umm, Barkhorn is off duty today. She left before dawn." Ursula said.

"Where to?" Mio asked.

"London." Ursula answered.

"London?" Minna asked.

"Her unconscious little sister apparently woke up." Ursula explained. "She tried to leave in a hurry with a Striker, but everyone stopped her! She's usually such a calm person, too!"

"It's no surprise." Minna said. "Her sister is her very reason for fighting. Everyone has the courage to fight because they have something very important to them they want to protect."

"No…not everyone does…" Ichiro said lowly, and then walked out of the room.

Mio winced, something that Ursula and Minna noticed. "You know something, don't you Mio?" Minna asked.

"Yes, but I'm not at liberty to tell." Mio replied, before she also walked out of the room.

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

Yoshika was flying back to the Gallian Hive, having learned all she could from the Karlsland Hive while spying on it. If she stayed any longer, she would have risked being detected.

'_So…the Carrier-class…that's what those three cube-like Neuroi were called. No wonder we didn't know about them; they were a newly created class. We need some of our own Carrier-class Neuroi. Now that I think about it, my elite three are somewhat of a Carrier-class…'_ Yoshika thought to herself, before she flew into the Hive.

Axion, Ixia, and Xalia were waiting for her. **"How went your spying mission?"** Ixia asked.

"It went well." Yoshika replied. "I learned that the three Neuroi you three went up against yesterday were a new strain of Neuroi, called the Carrier-class. It was no wonder that we didn't have any data on them."

"**Interesting. Focusing more on numbers rather than power." **Axion said.

"We need some of our own Carrier-class Neuroi of we are to effectively counter them. Can you three train some?" Yoshika asked.

"**We can, thanks to the data you collected, but it will take a while."** Xalia answered. **"I guess I am a hybrid between a Fort-class and a Carrier-class, since those drones act similarly to my spikes."**

"Please do." Yoshika requested as she went deeper into the Hive to get some rest; she was out all night spying on the Karlsland Hive that is loyal to the Neuroi King.

Several hours later, she left the Hive to go spy on the Strike Witches.

* * *

_With the Witches…_

At a hospital in London, Trude barged into one of the rooms with Erica right behind her.

"This is the medical ward! Not so loud!" a nurse scolded.

"Oh, sorry!" Trude apologized while Erica waved to Chris who was in a hospital bed, wide awake. "I rushed straight here, so…" Trude was cut off by Chris's giggling. "Chris…!" Trude said, walking to her little sister before giving her a hug.

"Were you okay without me, Big Sis?" Chris asked.

"Don't be silly!" Trude said quickly "Of course I was okay! Who do you think I am?!"

"She was a complete wreck!" Erica said "The nightmares were making her cry out 'Oh my sister, when will my baby sister ever wake up?'" Erica said, imitating Trude.

"Is that true?" Chris asked.

"You shut your mouth!" Trude yelled at Erica, blushing in embarrassment "This is supposed to be a happy reunion!"

"But it's the truth." Erica said.

"I am a dedicated soldier of Karlsland! I _give_ people nightmares, got it?!" Trude asked her little sister.

"Sis… you seem to be in good spirits!" Chris said.

"Really?" Trude asked.

"That's because my sister Ursula mellowed her out a bit." Erica replied. "Trude's still got a long way to go, though…"

"Hey!" Trude yelled, but then turned to her little sister, calming down instantly. "I'm just glad that my pretty little sister woke up at last!"

"Talk about blind sisterly love…" Erica groaned.

* * *

Walking back out to the car, Trude and Erica found a letter stuffed between the windshield and the wiper.

"So, who left this?" Erica asked, giving the letter to Trude.

"No clue." Trude said, flipping the envelope over to see Minna's name on it.

"Who's it for?" Erica asked, taking the letter. "Minna Dietlinde Wilcke?"

"That's odd…" Trude said.

* * *

Five Witches took to the air on a training exercise. The five consisted of Ursula, Perrine, Shirley, Lucchini, and Lynne, who then split into two teams; Ursula and Perrine on one team, and Shirley and Lucchini on the other team. Lynne was acting as the referee. Ursula, Perrine, Shirley and Lucchini were armed with paintball guns.

"Hartmann! Watch your rear!" Perrine warned.

"Gotcha!" Lucchini said. But right before she could fire, Ursula pulled up and disappeared from her sight. "Huh?" Lucchini asked.

Ursula pulled up behind Lucchini, and opened fire with a burst of paintballs, hitting both her and Shirley's Strikers.

"That technique..!" Perrine said, recognizing it as one of Mio's maneuvers. What she didn't know was that Ursula had the heart of a dogfighter, as well as a researcher, and was very, VERY observant; allowing her to copy most aerial maneuvers almost perfectly on the first try.

Lynne blew the whistle she was holding. "The Perrine-Hartmann team wins!" Lynne exclaimed.

"She got me!" Lucchini whined. "That's so weird! I was right behind her, too!"

"You've really matured, Hartmann!" Shirley praised.

"Do you think so?" Ursula asked.

"Yes, you've definitely improved your skills." Shirley said.

"Yeah! But you wouldn't have been so lucky at high altitude!" Lucchini said.

* * *

Ursula was walking out of the bathhouse, drying her hair, when Perrine confronted her.

"Hartmann! When did you learn that major technique?!" Perrine asked/yelled.

"Huh? I didn't know you were here, Perrine." Ursula said.

"I've been here this entire time!" Perrine yelled. "The hard left turn is Major Sakamoto's specialty! How did _you_ learn it?!"

"I only tried to copy what she did…" Ursula replied.

"Liar!" Perrine accused. "If such a high-level technique could be learned by watching it, no one would struggle to master it! Major Sakamoto must be teaching you in secret! That's not fair!"

"I don't see how a hard left turn could be so difficult!" Ursula replied, getting angrier at Perrine by the second.

"You insist on playing dumb, huh? You have some nerve!" Perrine yelled.

"How can a hard left turn be so difficult?!" Ursula replied angrily.

"That's it! I challenge you to a duel!" Perrine yelled.

* * *

In Minna's office, Trude and Erica approached Mio, Ichiro and Minna, giving Minna the letter.

"Sorry, but I went ahead and read what was inside." Trude said. "'Don't get involved. You know too much.'" Trude read the letter again. "What does that mean?" she asked.

"Very intriguing." Erica said.

"Yes, very interesting indeed." Ichiro said.

"You haven't done anything to be ashamed of, do you, Minna?" Mio asked.

"No, I haven't." Minna replied "All we've done is research the Neuroi…"

"Then why were you sent this?!" Trude asked.

"Any idea who sent it?" Erica asked.

"Too many possibilities to even count." Mio answered.

"Yes. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the military who despise us." Minna said.

"But I have a pretty good idea who might resort to something as vulgar as this." Mio said "He probably already knows something that goes to the heart of this war. We must have treaded close to it."

"Who's 'he'?" Trude asked.

"General Trevor Maloney… an Air Force general." Mio answered.

"There's something about Maloney that I don't like." Ichiro said, before walking out the room.

"I'll talk to him." Mio said, before she left the room as well.

Mio quickly caught up to Ichiro. "Dr. Miyafuji. Is something wrong?" Mio asked.

Ichiro sighed. "Mio, you know about the 500th Joint Fighter Wing that I've told you about, right?" Ichiro asked, turning to face Mio.

Mio nodded.

"Well, Trevor Maloney was in charge of the Proto Witches, and when he deemed it a failure he had a very small smirk on his face. It was almost as if he was _pleased_ that my daughter died." Ichiro explained.

Mio continued to ponder upon what the Professor had said in disbelief.

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

Yoshika was spying on the conversation from her usual hiding spot; low enough to avoid the radar net, and far enough to be out of range of Sanya's "Magic Antenna".

"You have no idea how right you are…dad." Yoshika said softly with a painful smile, before flying back to the Hive to get ready for the next stage of her plan.

* * *

_With the Witches…_

Ursula and Perrine were in the hangar, and Ursula went to grab one of the paintball guns.

"Not those." Perrine said, grabbing her gun that she uses for combat.

"Oh, are we using actual guns?" Ursula asked.

"We're about to _duel_." Perrine confirmed, hopping into her Striker Unit.

Ursula smirked. _'Perrine, you spoiled fool. You have no idea how big of a mistake you just made. Where I'm from, duels are done with actual guns, while _shooting_ at each other. Time to show you why it's a mistake to challenge a Karlslander to a duel.'_ Ursula thought to herself as she hopped into her Striker Unit as well, grabbing her gun while she was at it.

Three minutes later, both Witches were airborne.

The two Witches were flying above the hills of Britannia.

"Hartmann. Do you read me?" Perrine asked as she approached Ursula head-on. "The first to take the other's back for over ten seconds wins. That is all."

Ursula scoffed. _'Is that how they do it in Gallia? I won't give her the pleasure of a duel that doesn't fire any shots.'_

That was when the two Witches passed each other.

Ursula wasted no time turning around and lining up a shot. "Perrine, you fool." Ursula said through the intercom. "I won't give you the pleasure of _that_ kind of duel."

"Wh-What do you mean?" Perrine asked hesitantly, starting to regret her idea for a duel after seeing Ursula turn around and get behind her back.

"Because back in Karlsland, duels are fought with actual bullets!" Ursula exclaimed as she lined up a shot and pulled the trigger, spewing out bullets.

Perrine was taken by surprise, and was barely able to dodge the bullets. "What are you doing?!" Perrine yelled.

That was when the Neuroi alarm went off.

"The alarm!" Perrine exclaimed.

"A Neuroi has appeared?!" Ursula asked.

In the control room, Minna, Mio, and Ichiro were looking at the radar screen.

"Grid East 23. Three Neuroi confirmed. They're on course for London." Minna reported.

"Commander! This is Perrine!" Perrine's voice said through the radio. "Hartmann and I are already up in the air, doing, uhh, training! We'll go on ahead!"

What?! Why wasn't I informed of this?!" Minna asked.

"Because we weren't training." Ursula's voice answered. "The stuck-up here challenged me to a duel for a pretty stupid reason."

"Be quiet!" Perrine's voice yelled.

Minna, Mio, and Ichiro sighed.

But then Ichiro realized something. "Wait, did you say three?" he asked.

"Yes. Why?" Mio asked.

"Then I'm coming up with you. It's very likely that those three are the "Invincible Trio", and I have some questions for them." Ichiro said with finality.

Sayaka and Akimoto walked into the room. "We would like to follow…" Sayaka said, with Akimoto nodding.

"Is that so…" Ichiro sighed, "Then so be it… but make sure to stay with me"

Minna, knowing that she wouldn't be able to talk the three out of it, relented. "Very well, we'll be guarding you. Get into the Ju52 and standby." Minna then turned to the radio. "Perrine, Ursula, I'll let this slide for now, but it better not happen again. I want both of you to return to base and wait for the others, NOW!" Minna ordered.

Ursula, hearing Minna's orders, relented. "Come on, let's head back." Ursula said, flying back to the base. Perrine nodded, and followed her back to base.

Mio walked into Eila's room, seeing both Eila and Sanya asleep. "Eila, wake up." Mio said.

Eila groaned. "What is it…?" Eila asked tiredly.

"Get up now. It looks like all our questions are going to be answered." Mio replied.

Eila, as soon as those words registered in her brain, immediately sat up. "Finally. All those questions were driving me crazy." Eila said.

"Oh, and bring Sanya as well. She can sleep on the plane." Mio said, before stepping out of the room.

Eila looked at the still sleeping Sanya as she put her clothes on, and shook her gently. "Sanya, I need you to wake up for a bit." Eila said softly.

To her surprise, Sanya did wake up. "I heard everything. Step out and let me get dressed." Sanya said tiredly.

Eila then stepped out of the room, and waited for Sanya to get dressed.

Three minutes later, Sanya stepped out of the room, dressed in her usual outfit. "Let's go get on the plane. I still sleepy…" Sanya said tiredly.

"Right." Eila replied, nodding; she wanted some more sleep as well.

Five minutes later, both Eila and Sanya walked onto the runway, where the base's Ju52 was sitting, its engines already prepped and waiting. The two tired Witches walked into the plane, and fell asleep on the seats.

Akimoto and Sayaka walked into the plane moments later.

Ichiro and Minna were in the cockpit of the Ju52, performing pre-flight checks. Once everything checked out, Ichiro started the engines.

A minute later, the Ju52 took off, with Ursula, Perrine, Mio, Shirley, Lucchini, Lynne, Trude, and Erica escorting them to the flight path of the "Invincible Trio".

Ten minutes into the flight, Mio spotted three glints in the distance "Targets spotted." Mio called.

Minna, in the co-pilot's seat of the Ju52 (Ichiro was in the pilot's seat, because he knows how to fly the plane, and Minna was in the co-pilot's seat because she received some training on how to fly the Ju52) asked Mio, "Are they the "Invincible Trio"?"

Mio lifted up her eye patch, revealing her "Magic Eye", and used it to zoom her sight on the three glints in the distance. There, in the sight of her "Magic Eye", was the "Invincible Trio".

"Yes, the three are confirmed to be the "Invincible Trio"!" Mio called.

"We can finally get some answers." Ichiro said, and flew the plane to meet with the three Neuroi, the escort Witches following him.

* * *

_With the Neuroi…_

The three Neuroi were flying on course for London, but that wasn't their actual destination. The three clearly remembered their Commander's orders.

_Flashback_

"_Axion, Ixia, Xalia, I believe it's time to reveal the truth to the Strike Witches." Yoshika said as she hovered in front of her three elite Neuroi._

"_**Are you sure that now is the time?"**__ Ixia asked._

"_We will need all the help we can get to destroy the Super Hive that the Neuroi King has sent to this planet when it arrives." Yoshika answered. "Plus, if we can stop the war between our faction of Neuroi and the humans, then it's a risk we will have to take. Your orders are to fly on course to London, but that's just to draw them out. If they ask you to answer some questions, then lead them here, because the humans can't understand your language like I can. If they fire at you, then you have permission to engage, but only fire on the ones that fire at you first." Yoshika ordered._

"_**Understood."**__ Axion replied, as he, Ixia, and Xalia flew out of the Hive to commence their mission; it was time that the Strike Witches learned the truth of this foolish war._

_Flashback End_

Axion them noticed the approaching group of Witches escorting a plane. **"Well, it looks like they took the bait. If they ask us questions, I want Ixia to fly beneath them and allow them to land on your back. If what I know about human planes is correct, they have a limited supply of fuel."** Axion said.

"**Got it."** Ixia confirmed.

**"Well, here they come."** Xalia said, as the group approached them.

* * *

_With the Witches…_

"There they are…it's the "Invincible Trio"." Ichiro said as they approached the three Neuroi.

"It's time we get some answers." Minna said as the group pulled up next to the three Neuroi. Surprisingly, the "Invincible Trio" has yet to open fire.

"We have some questions for you." Mio said to the three Neuroi. "Can you answer them?"

The Neuroi that looked like a submarine then materialized a needle and first pointed in the direction of the Gallian Hive, and then gently tapped the needle to Mio's ear while screeching softly. The submarine-like Neuroi then dematerialized the needle.

Mio was confused, but Lynne got the message. "Oh, so you're saying that there's someone at the Gallian Hive that can translate?" Lynne asked.

The submarine Neuroi "nodded" the best it could, taking the Witches by surprise that the Neuroi actually answered a question, although it did make sense as the Witches just remembered that the Neuroi can't speak their language.

"Well, let's go then." Sayaka said, which Ichiro agreed while Minna was hesitant, but relented; if anything went wrong, Minna still had her Striker Unit in the cargo area of the plane. Unfortunately, there was no more room for Eila's and Sanya's Strikers, so they had to leave those behind.

The group of Witches and Neuroi then turned and flew to the Gallian Hive.

* * *

**A/N: I want to give thanks to my good friend P4Nd0RaS for rewriting this chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Ch.5: The Truth, the Warlock and the Revelation**

When the group reached the Hive, the Neuroi that looked like an advanced bomber flew underneath the Ju52 and rose up until the plane's fixed landing gear touched its' back. The bomber-like Neuroi them materialized some armor around the plane's landing gear, locking it in place.

Ichiro, taking the hint, shut down the Ju52's three engines to conserve fuel.

The group, with the bomber-like Neuroi carrying the Ju52 transport plane, flew into the Hive, where the Witches (Eila and Sanya woke up when Ixia connected himself to the plane), Ichiro, Sayaka, and Akimoto all looked around with wide eyes, their curiosity at its peak. Then, the "Invincible Trio" took the group to the Hive's Core, where Yoshika (who was wearing a Neuroi mask [imagine Neuroi-Chan's face. That's what the mask looks like]) was waiting for them.

When Ichiro, Sayaka, and Akimoto saw the Humanoid Neuroi waiting for them, they got a familiar feeling, a feeling that they haven't felt in years. Ichiro looked closely at the Humanoid Neuroi. _'That Neuroi looks similar to Yoshika, but that's impossible. She was killed four years ago.'_ Ichiro thought, while Mio, Sayaka and Akimoto had the same thought.

Then, to the Witches' and Ichiro's, Sayaka's, and Akimoto's surprise, the Humanoid Neuroi spoke. "Axion, Ixia, Xalia, I thank you for bringing them like I asked."

The three Neuroi screeched an affirmative.

Then the Humanoid Neuroi turned to face them.

All the humans present were finally able to see her features. The Humanoid Neuroi had eight spike-like wings, most likely drones, folded against her back. She was wearing a black skintight body suit with Neuroi features. She was also wearing black gloves that had a single red marking on the palms of each hand, and the gloves also had four small holes each at the top of the hands, the purpose of which escaped the humans. She also had short greyish-white hair that flowed down to just below the neck line. She also had black tanuki ears, each with a single blue crystal (this is NOT part of the mask, BTW), sticking out of her head, along with a brown tanuki tail out of her tailbone, and had a black mask covering the upper half of her face, but left her hazel eyes uncovered. To the humans' shock, she was also wearing something similar to a Striker Unit, which was all black and had wing-like stubs, each of which had several red markings.

When Mio, Ichiro, Sayaka, and Akimoto saw the brown tanuki tail and the Neuroi's hazel eyes, their eyes widened. _'This Neuroi looks similar to Yoshika Miyafuji.'_ Mio thought.

_"It looks similar to my daughter._' Ichiro thought.

If only they knew.

"I believe you have some questions for me?" the Humanoid Neuroi asked.

Mio nodded. "We do. What _exactly_ is going on?"

The Humanoid Neuroi was silent at first, but then spoke. "Can you bring the one known as Sanya out? I can use my power on her "Magic Antenna" and have her translate what she hears through your intercoms. And yes, I know all about that."

Eila, who heard this, was about to protest when Sanya beat her to it. "Okay, what do I need to do?" Sanya asked, much to the shock of the other humans present (Yoshika is not a full human, BTW).

"I need you to activate your "Magic Antenna"." The Humanoid Neuroi replied.

Sanya did so, and her green "Magic Antenna" appeared on each side of her head.

"This is going to hurt for a moment, but there's no other way of doing this." The Humanoid Neuroi spoke, before the blue crystals in her ears lit up and fired two blue energy beams, both of them striking Sanya's left "Magic Antenna", making her wince in pain.

As soon as it started, it was over, and Sanya's left "Magic Antenna" was now red, while her right one was still green.

Ixia, who was still carrying the Ju52, asked, **"Can you understand me now?"**

This time, all the humans gasped in shock; Sanya because she could now understand the Neuroi directly, and the rest of the humans because they could hear what the Neuroi said thanks to their intercoms being connected to Sanya's.

"Y-Y-Yes, we understood that." Erica replied, shocked that she can understand the Neuroi now, even if Sanya was transmitting the translated words.

"**Good. My name is Ixia, and I'm the one carrying what you humans call the Ju52. I am a Runner/Fort-class Neuroi, and one of the Commander's elites."** Ixia said, shocking all the humans present.

The Neuroi with fourteen spikes then approached. **"My name is Xalia. I am a Fort/Carrier-class Neuroi, and also one of the Commander's elites."**

Then, the submarine-like Neuroi approached the humans. **"My name is Axion. I am a Tank/Carrier-class Neuroi, and also one of the Commander's elites."**

"Now that introductions are over, I believe it's time to answer your questions." The Humanoid Neuroi, the one that all the humans now know is the Commander, pulled up several screens, and on each one, scenes played out. Eila recognized one of them as the vision she had, while the others clearly showed what the Neuroi did on other worlds. To the humans' shock, the only time the Neuroi attacked was when they were fired at first. The screens then showed several Neuroi fighting against each other; the ones with red markings firing at the ones with purple markings, and vice-versa.

"The Neuroi are in a civil war." The Humanoid Neuroi explained, surprising all the humans present. "Our faction, which bears red markings and sides with the Neuroi Queen, against the enemy faction, which bears purple markings and sides with the Neuroi King. The Neuroi King wants to take over the universe once he learns everything about it, while the Neuroi Queen wants to live in harmony with all sentient beings after learning everything about the universe. This Hive sides with the Queen, while the Hive in Karlsland sides with the Neuroi King, who has sent a Super Hive to this planet which will arrive in two months." This shocked all the humans present. "But I made contact with the Neuroi Queen regarding the matter, and she has sent her own Super Hive as a countermeasure. Now, take a look at this." An image of a white, humanoid robot with a purple glow around it appeared, making the humans confused. "This is what the human, known as Trevor Maloney, has been working on behind your backs. He intends to replace the Witches with these "Warlock" units, which are the final product of the "Warlock Project", but so far, only one of them has been made." The Humanoid Neuroi explained.

That was when an alert appeared on the screen, surprising all those that were present. A Neuroi approached the group. **"Commander! There's an object approaching at high speed!"** the Neuroi exclaimed.

"Pull up the image!" the Humanoid Neuroi ordered, and an image of a white jet-like object appeared. "So that is the Warlock…I'm heading out there myself…let's see how powerful it is… Axion show my battle live will you?"

The Humanoid Neuroi warped out of the hive immediately and a screen appeared.

* * *

_'I did well hiding my feelings there... I almost fell into tears…' _Yoshika thought after she warped out of the hive_. 'It's not time to wander... now...'_

She ran a quick check on her physical state.

_'Core running on optimum level.'_

_'Magic is stable.'_

_'Variable Wings on standby.'_

_'Armor at 100%.'_

_'Plasma Shield Active.'_

"Now let's see…" she said as she raises her hand. She activated here "Telescoping Search Eye" and aimed. After a few seconds the Warlock came into sight.

_'Charge… Burst…' _Yoshika willed and multiple small beams were fired erratically towards the faraway target.

The Warlock took no evasive action as the beams approached it, but the beams were all blocked by a plasma shield (the same as the anime~). The Warlock then opened fire with its machineguns in retaliation.

Yoshika disappeared in a blast of smoke and reappeared twenty meters away from her starting point dodging the bullets.

"If normal beams won't work, then how about this?" Yoshika said to herself as she looked for a weak spot. Surprisingly, there were multiple weak spots; the joints, the shoulders and head are relatively weak. '_If I can destroy the Core then it will be over…' _she thought. She then fired multiple beams again, this time combining her magic into the beams, turning them yellow as they raced towards the Warlock. The war machine, sensing that these beams are different, dodged with ease, but that is exactly what Yoshika expected it to do.

Both combatants flew, swerved, dodged and danced in the air.

Using her magic in the beams, Yoshika curved them towards the Warlock, forcing it to dodge again and again but also forcing it to move in the direction she wanted. Making a small grin, Yoshika stopped her beam attack. "Gotcha..." she said as she focused power to her arms as her right hand shine bright.

The Warlock, sensing the danger, also stopped, and transformed into the white robot that she showed the humans earlier, and brought its arms together, charging up a beam shot.

Then, at the same time, both fired charged beams at each other, with Yoshika's being red and the Warlock's being purple, and the beams collided and cancelled each other out after a few seconds. Yoshika gritted her teeth; she only had about six minutes left before she had to turn off her "Telescoping Search Eye", or else she would temporarily go blind for 24 hours, which would make her an easy target.

'_I guess I have to start getting serious.'_ Yoshika thought, before charging at the Warlock, which fired its arm-mounted machineguns in response, driving her off course.

Back at the fight, Yoshika was starting to get tired. _'It's stalling for time... I guess I have no choice.'_ Yoshika thought, spreading out her wings. "GO!" Yoshika shouted, launching all eight wings into the air and immediately opened fire. The beams fired on the Warlock, forcing it to dodge, but the wings followed. Yoshika then prepared a barrage of multiple super-charged beams, as the red markings on both of her Neuroi Striker Units and her hands glowed yellow, signaling that she was also charging magic into the beams.

Thirty seconds later, Yoshika recalled her wings, and as soon as they reattached to her back, she fired a barrage of magic charged beams, which all followed the Warlock like a homing missile (one of those beams will completely vaporize a human in an instant, and no Witch can block those kinds of beams).

The Warlock started to fall back, retreating at its highest speed.

Yoshika wouldn't give it the chance, though.

"Like I'll let you go!" Yoshika said, before focusing all the fired beams into one big beam, aimed it at the Warlock and she fires.

The Warlock couldn't dodge this beam, and was cut in half, the purple Core used to power it incinerated in the process. The only thing left intact was the left and the right arms (which, while mostly intact on the outside, was molten metal inside). Seeing the leftover pieces of the Warlock falling, Yoshika dived down and grabbed the two pieces, and carried them back to the Hive.

In the Hive, Yoshika approached the group of humans, and gave the leftover pieces of the Warlock to Axion, who covered them with armor for safekeeping.

* * *

_With the Witches_

After the Humanoid Neuroi disappeared in an instant, a screen popped out in the edges of the Hive.

"Uuuu... I'm getting more confused…" Luchinni whined at the side.

**"It will take some time before you will understand it all... but for now look." **Axion "pointed" at the screen.

On the screen, the battle between the Humanoid Neuroi and the Warlock continues.

The Witches watched as each swerved at high speed while firing their weapons.

"Whoa~!" Trude exclaimed at the number of beams the Neuroi Commander can fire.

All the humans present were shocked by the sheer fire power that one Neuroi can do.

As all the humans do, they started to feel fear towards this "Monster".

"Shouldn't we help?" Mio asked.

**"That is not honorable! One on one! That is the way of the warrior!"** Xalia exclaimed proudly and continued, **"She is strong by herself!"**

'_She? Her? Do the Neuroi have their own sexual terms?' _Ichiro wondered at this.

"Will she be alright?" Minna asked as she noticed that the Warlock is stalling for time.

**"It's alright for she is strong for a..." **Xalia says proudly.

**"Commander! Yes! She is our strongest!" **Axion interrupted.

_'This is an interesting experience... Neuroi have their own way for communication... they are also intelligent life forms...and I feel that they are hiding something from me.'_ Ichiro thought.

**"You better not speak too much Xalia." **Ixia said calmly.

As they watched the battle unfold, the Warlock was defeated in a space of approximately 10 minutes.

**"Welcome back, Commander. There are no other enemies in the vicinity but our scanners have found multiple heat signatures in the Witches' Base. We have identified one of them as General Trevor Maloney." **Axion said.

The humans present were shocked.

_'So he has come to clean up the Witches, eh?'_ Minna thinks to herself.

_'What should we do?'_ Mio thinks as she gives a questioning look to Minna.

_'The fox have come to gloat his supposed victory I guess... would he think that he has failed?_' Ichiro thought to himself.

It was silent for a few seconds until the three Neuroi spoke their own thoughts.

**"Why don't we visit them?"** Axion suggested.

**"It gonna make a nice surprise!"** Xalia said gleefully.

**"Why not…"** Ixia said with a monotone.

The Witches were shocked at their way of thinking.

"I see no problem at all... Let's visit for a while. I have a few souvenirs for him." Yoshika said as she pointed at the molten metal, the Warlock's remains.

That was when Minna cleared her throat and asked "What are we going to do about Maloney?" Minna asked.

"Well... what should we do? Let's see when were there shall we?" Yoshika answered and continued, "You three do not fire unless its self-defense; we finally have a chance to end this needlessly long war."

**"Right." **Axion confirmed.

**"Sure."** Ixia replied.

**"Roger That!"** Xalia answered.

Ichiro got into the pilot's seat, while Minna got into the co-pilot's seat, while Eila, Sanya, Sayaka, and Akimoto got into the transport plane, and they both (meaning Ichiro and Minna) performed their preflight checks as the group flew out of the Hive. Ichiro then started the Ju52's three engines, signaling Ixia to dematerialize the armor that was keeping the plane in place, and lowered himself and pulled away, effectively air-launching the transport plane, as Eila and Sanya stayed awake, getting ready for their encounter with Maloney, while Axion, Ixia, Xalia, Yoshika, and the rest of the Witches flew in formation with each other.

Midway through the flight to the base at Dover, Yoshika ordered the "Invincible Trio" to hang back, but to be ready to come in a hurry if she needed them at a moment's notice.

* * *

At the Dover base, the Witches and the Miyafuji's noticed Maloney and a group of armed soldiers waiting for them. After the group landed, the Miyafuji's got out of the plane and the Witches walked next to them.

Yoshika, meanwhile, stayed hidden in the clouds, out of Maloney's and the soldiers' sights.

Maloney smirked as the soldiers surrounded the group and aimed their guns at them. "I see that the traitors have shown up." Maloney said.

"Look who's talking!" Minna shot back.

"Yeah! You created the Warlock using Neuroi technology!" Trude yelled.

"Technology that I'm jealous of…" Ursula mumbled.

Maloney started sweating a little. "I don't know what you're talking about." Maloney quickly denied.

"Oh, but you do…" Yoshika said as she hovered down behind the Ju52 and hovered in front of Maloney. "Oh, and here's a gift for you." Yoshika said, before dropping the two remaining pieces of the Warlock, letting them drop to the pavement.

Maloney's eyes widened to impossible proportions. "Impossible! The Warlock was supposed to be invincible! Neuroi! Shoot it down!"

The soldiers around showed expressions of fear and shock as they aimed at Yoshika. They did not fire... for their instincts told them not to.

"OPEN FIRE!" Maloney shouted, making the soldiers open fire.

All the soldiers opened fire but the bullets ricocheted against Yoshika's plasma shield.

The Witches threw up their shields (except Eila, of course. She NEVER throws up a shield), effectively blocking every single bullet that came in their way.

Unexpectedly, a soldier threw a grenade and exploded near Yoshika's left shoulder. The shield couldn't deflect it by reflex and so her armor took the full brunt of the explosion.

Her left arm is still intact but is slightly injured and her blood starts dripping.

"Blood?!" Mio exclaimed in surprise.

Everyone in the vicinity is surprised. A Neuroi is dripping blood from its injury.

"It seems I got too careless..." Yoshika says as she took of her mask. "Do you remember me?"

The soldiers look around in confusion they don't know what is the existence in front of them... is it a Neuroi? Is it a Witch? Each of them thought about it and they all looked at General Trevor for confirmation.

"You! You're not supposed to be alive!" Maloney said in fear. "1st Lieutenant Miyafuji!"

Mio and the Miyafuji family were shocked while the Witches are confused.

_'Our daughter is...alive?"_ Ichiro and Sayaka thought while looking at each other.

Everyone is silent... in this confusion Yoshika spoke.

"That's right... I am Yoshika Miyafuji..." Yoshika proclaimed. "I'm the Commander of the Earth Neuroi Colony led by the Red Queen."

"We do not want endless slaughter... call of your troops or I shall retaliate." Yoshika said calmly as she glared at the surrounding soldiers.

"OPEN FIRE!" Maloney ordered but none of the soldiers comply.

The soldiers in the vicinity confused, started to put down their weapons one by one.

"TAKE YOUR WEAPONS! OPEN FIRE! DO YOU WANT TO BE BRANDED A TRAITOR ALSO!?" Maloney shouted in anger.

None of the soldiers answered. All of them looked down and thought deeply of what's right and they don't know. They simply don't know.

"SO BE IT!" Maloney said as he pulled his hand gun "I'LL DO IT MYSELF!"

"Too slow..." Yoshika whispered as she sliced the general's arm that is holding the gun with a beam.

"AAAaaaargghh!" Maloney screamed in pain "How dare...you... How dare you!"

"…_General Maloney, sir._" Yoshika continued, adding venom to the word "sir". "How do you feel?"

"Damn it... Don't think this is over... This is not the end of us! We will be back!" Maloney shouted in desperation.

Yoshika wondered about what he said. '_Well, well, well...so he's not the only one... I'll remember this statement.'_

"Sure...and goodbye." Yoshika replied, as she raised her right hand as yellow magic beam claws extended from them, showing the purpose of the holes in the gloves, four claws of light moved at an astonishing speed and slashed off Maloney's head, killing him.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Chapter 6: The Calm before the Storm**

* * *

After the events that have unfolded, all the humans present were tired.

Some questions were raised. Some were answered but the whole picture remains blurred to the end.

"Yoshika…" Ichiro said to his daughter who is looking at the sun silently.

Sayaka is at his side and Akimoto watches from the back.

"Dad… Mom… Grandma…" Yoshika whispered loud enough for them to hear.

"Yoshika…" Sayaka said as she started to sob.

Yoshika then starts to walk closer to her family and said with a warm smile "Don't cry mom… or you'll make me cry too."

Sayaka and Ichiro nodded and hold their tears while Akimoto is just happy watching her family reunited once again and sighed in bliss.

"How do you do while I was gone, dad?" Yoshika asked shyly.

"I'm quite fine, actually." Ichiro said trying to sound cheerful like he used to.

"Hah! You two were crying all the time taking faults for your own self and you say that you're okay? Hahahahahaha!" Akimoto exclaimed while laughing.

"Mo… Mother!" Sayaka and Ichiro said at the same time embarrassed about the fact being told to their daughter.

"Ahahaha… It's just like you mom… dad… but… I'm not the same you know…" Yoshika says the sentence sadly.

Ichiro, Sayaka and Akimoto were surprised at the statement.

She choked out the sad words at her parents, "I'm… not the Yoshika Miyafuji you used to know…"

"It doesn't matter…" Ichiro said calmly.

"No matter what you are, what form you take, you will always be our daughter." Sayaka says lovingly.

"It doesn't matter that I'm partially Neuroi?" Yoshika asked.

"It doesn't matter." Sayaka answered immediately.

"It doesn't matter that I'm a monster?" Yoshika asked again.

"It doesn't matter." Ichiro answered immediately.

"Why...? Why don't you care? Im a monstrosity! I can live with all of you anymore! I'm too strong! I'm…!" Yoshika said as she started sobbing.

"You're a hard-headed fool! So similar to your parents! Do not reject a parent's love!" Akimoto says as she is irritated by the words her granddaughter had said but continued kindly, "You are you. Nobody can say otherwise… we love you no matter what."

Yoshika's eyes opened wide as she accepts that one truth.

~Nothing could ever compare to a parent's love. ~

As she thinks this she smile thinly and wiped her tears.

"Then this will be fine for now… but I… can't go back yet… I still have things to do." Yoshika strengthened her will.

The three nodded in unison for they know about responsibilities.

"Then at least know this…" Sayaka answered.

"We are here…" Ichiro continued while hugging his wife from behind.

"Our home will always be your home… we will accept you no matter what… come home once in a while…" Akimoto concluded.

Yoshika laughed a little and said, "I'll make sure to visit sometimes."

Suddenly a sound of a few people falling over was heard nearby and the Miyafuji's were all shocked.

"UWAaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" Lucchini cried loudly.

"This… is so touching…" Lynne said with tears in her eyes.

"Trude~ you're crying~" Erica teased.

"I'm not crying!" Trude denied and said, "These are manly tears!"

Perrine is just panicking, looking around thinking of an excuse.

Minna just smiles with a little tear in her eyes.

Sanya sobs quietly.

"Mouu… Sanya here blow your nose." Eila says as she hands a handkerchief to Sanya. (I wish I could put a nose blowing SFX/Sound effect here).

Ursula just smiles looking at the group.

Mio however laughs hard like and old man, "HAHAHAHAHAHA! All's well that ends well!"

"Wha… Wa… Whe… When did all of you come out?!" Ichiro stuttered.

"Have you been watching all this time?" Sayaka asked while being embarrassed.

Akimoto only showed a little smile while looking down.

"Ahahahahah… HaHaHaHa… HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yoshika started laughing out loud.

Ichiro and Sayaka too laughed with their daughter and soon the Witches follow.

* * *

_In Gallian Airspace_

"**Yoshika… how did it go?"** Axion said with a little worry.

"It's all right~ I'm happy to meet them after all this time." Yoshika answered cheerfully.

"**What are we going to do now?"** Ixia asked.

"Hmm… I know!" Yoshika exclaimed while pointing her finger upwards.

"I will act as a representative of the Neuroi to the humans. I would be what you call a diplomatic ambassador. I will forge a bridge between the humans and the Neuroi. I will also act as a representative of the Red Queen. With this we can stop our battles with the humans and maybe can win support from them." Yoshika calmly explained her plan.

"**Will the humans accept you?"** Xalia asked.

Axion "head-butted" Xalia for that sensitive question.

Yoshika giggled at their behavior and said, "Maybe… My family still loves me but it doesn't mean that the others will… The Witches accepted me somewhat but they're just too friendly…"

"**Then it all rests on a discussion with the human higher ups, doesn't it?"** Ixia suggested.

"Yes… it seems so." Yoshika pondered to herself.

"**Then… what should we do?"** Axion asked.

"I guess you three should stand by in the Hive. Axion! You will replace my position for a while. Report all movements of the Karlsland Hive or anything suspicious to me immediately!" Yoshika ordered.

"**What about you, Commander?"** Ixia asked as Yoshika did not fly with them.

"I… will stay at the Witches' base for a while." Yoshika says as she looked back.

"**Ehehehe... Is that strictly for business? Or something else?"** Xalia teased.

Axion "head-butted" Xalia again.

"Ahahaha… well… it's both~" Yoshika answered gleefully.

"**So be it."** Ixia says as he flew away.

"**See ya~"** Xalia shouted as he flew off.

"**Have fun… Little Sister."** Axion whispered before flying away.

Yoshika beamed and went flying in the direction of the Witches' base.

* * *

"So, that's how it is~" Yoshika grinned while explaining what had happened.

In the background, Lynne dropped a plate that resulted in a loud breaking sound in the silence.

All the Witches were too shocked to speak.

Sanya and Eila however are still sleeping.

The Miyafuji's are still in their own house provided by the military.

"Ho~ Yoshika~" Ichiro said with a little surprise while he walked in the cafeteria.

He grabbed a loaf of bread bit it in his mouth and said, "whaf ah yu doingh hfere?" (What are you doing here?)

"I'll be staying here as a diplomat~" Yoshika cheerfully stated.

Perrine who started to get the idea started stuttering in outrage, "Wha… What the?"

"Here we go again." Ursula said in the sidelines.

"What do you mean by that!?" Perrine angrily asked.

"Nothing~" Ursula said as she ran away.

"Wait!" Perrine shouted as she chased her.

The other Witches were still petrified when Ichiro walked out saying, "See you later~ make sure to see your mom~"

"Will do~" Yoshika said as Sanya and Eila walked into the cafeteria.

"What's for break…?" Eila paused what she wanted to say when she saw Yoshika.

"Ah…" Sanya says sleepily.

"Sakamoto-san~ Nice to meet you!" Yoshika said to the major.

"A… ah yes… nice to meet you too… wait, how did you know my name?" Mio asked.

"I spoke with my father a bit and of course told him of my plan~" Yoshika said with a smile on her face.

"Let me introduce myself… I am Yoshika Miyafuji, former 1st Lieutenant of the 500th Joint Fighter Wing, aka the "Proto Witches". Now I'm the Commander of the Neuroi force on Earth. Please take care of me." Yoshika introduced herself and bowed politely.

"Lieutenant Commander Minna Wilcke." Minna introduced herself and Mio, "Major Sakamoto Mio."

"I know~ Dad talked a lot about you helping his research Sakamoto-san~" Yoshika said as she pointed to Mio.

"I am Charlotte Yeager, I come from Liberion and my rank is Flight Lieutenant. Do call me Shirley." Shirley introduced herself.

"Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen, Suomus Air Force Pilot Officer." Eila introduced herself and continued to introduce the sleeping Sanya by her side, "This is Sanya Litvyak, Orussia Army Flying Officer."

"I'm Francesca Lucchini." Lucchini introduced herself as she hugs Shirley and continued, "Romagna Regia Aeronautica Pilot Officer."

"Gertrude Barkhorn." Trude said her name as she finished her food and left the room.

"I'm Erica Hartmann. Nice to meet you." Erica said.

Suddenly, Ursula ran into the cafeteria with Perrine at her back.

"Ursula Hartmann, Erica's twin sister. It's nice to meet you!" Ursula introduced herself.

Perrine then stops and elegantly introduced herself, "I am Perrine Clostermann, Flying Officer of the Gallian Armée de l'Air."

"Ah… yes, nice to meet you too." Yoshika said to them.

"Lynette Bishop… nice to meet you…" Lynne said shyly.

"Enough for introductions. All of you, it's time for duty. Miyafuji what are you going to do?" Mio asked Yoshika.

"Ah~ I'll look around the base and have some time with my mom and dad~ maybe I'll see you guys training~ oh! Remember that all of you will escort me to Rome~ I wish to meet the Duchess."

"What about Gallia? What will happen to it?" Perrine asked worrisomely.

"Do not worry. We can compromise; we can even protect the citizens." Yoshika said.

"Oh~ and don't forget~ don't tell anyone that I'm half-Neuroi okay~ to others I, will be a full Neuroi." Yoshika requested.

"It is a logical decision. I can comply with that." Minna said while nodding her head.

"Well it wouldn't matter here." Yoshika whispered to herself but loud enough for others to hear, confusing the present Witches.

Yoshika's whole body flashed bright. Her gloves, suit, Neuroi Strikers and wings dematerialized and what's left of it was a sailor suit she used 4 years ago.

Her tanuki ears and tail disappeared and her eye turned hazelnut brown.

The Witches can only stare in shock as each of them thought, _'She perfectly look human!'_

"What… What is that transformation?" Ursula asked with shining eyes.

But Yoshika wasn't listening; her attention is taken elsewhere.

She was looking at the food on the table and her stomach growled hard.

The sound was so loud that it shook the base.

Ichiro came running in a panic. "Earthquake! Yoshika where are you?"

The Witches can only stay frozen to their spot.

Yoshika, whose face was beet-red in pure embarrassment, shyly asked, "Can I have some food?"

* * *

Yoshika was eating in the cafeteria... but she is eating way too much.

"Yoshika… don't you think it's enough?" Sayaka asked with some concern in her voice.

Yoshika keeps wolfing down food and replied when her mouth is empty, "Sorry mom… really hungry… it's been 4 years since I've last eaten."

"What a metabolism… how can you eat all that?" Ursula questioned from the side.

"I'm sooo hungry..." Yoshika answered as it is obvious.

_Thirty Minutes Later..._

"Ahhh… this is bliss…" Yoshika said as she rubs her full stomach now quite gloated.

Mio, Ursula, Ichiro and Sayaka can only stare in disbelief on how much the little girl had eaten.

"Dad…" Yoshika suddenly said while her eyes droop low, "I'm tired… couldn't… hold it anymore…"

Ichiro confused by the statement suddenly panicked as Yoshika toppled over.

After catching her in his arms did he notice that she is sleeping soundly.

"Uhuhuhu!" Sayaka laughed to herself as she took Yoshika up, "She is always cute when asleep."

"She is our daughter after all." Ichiro said.

"Can I ask some questions later when she wakes up Professor?" Ursula asked with a glint in her eyes.

"You can ask her later, Ensign Hartmann." Mio commented. "Now it's time for training."

* * *

Yoshika woke up on her mother's lap.

She looked around and started to notice where she is.

It's a small house.

The room feels nostalgic... it is decorated in an eastern style with the tatami and all.

She could see a family photo on top of the fire place.

The picture is brown and old.

'_It's been four years…'_ Yoshika thought to herself.

"Ara… did you wake up Yoshika?" Sayaka asked silently.

"Ah… mom… how long did I sleep?" Yoshika asked her mother as she looked outside the window that the sun is still high. (After noon I guess 1-2 pm?)

"Only a few hours… why don't you sleep some more?" Sayaka replied.

"Don't worry about me mom… I'm okay." Yoshika said as she woke up, stretched her body and looked around some more.

"How do you feel? This room? We made it to look like our home." Sayaka asked.

"Hehehe… it makes me feel like I'm little again." Yoshika said as she reminisced her childhood.

"How is Micchan?" Yoshika asked.

"Michiko? She is fine…" Sayaka said as she smiled, "She is now in college."

"So she is well…" Yoshika said as she remembers her childhood friend.

"Why don't you visit her? Though Fuso is quite far from here but you can right?" Sayaka asked, concerned.

"Not now… she thinks that I died, right?" Yoshika replied.

"Well…" Sayaka couldn't answer.

"Is that so…" Yoshika can only say that.

"I'm gonna see dad." Yoshika said as she started walking to the front door.

"Your father is in the lab; don't bother him too much okay?" Sayaka reminded.

"Sure!" Yoshika cheerfully walked out of the house in the direction of the base.

* * *

She walked through corridors, moving through halls and she was confused.

"Where am I?" Yoshika asked to herself.

"Kya!" Lynne bumped into Yoshika in the corner of the hall.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Yoshika said as she started helping to pick up the fallen laundry.

"Ah… no… I'm sorry." Lynne stuttered, embarrassed.

Yoshika then helped Lynne to bring laundry and hang them up since she had nothing to do.

"Sorry to impose on you, Miyafuji-san." Lynne said.

"Ah don't worry, Lynne-chan. I had nothing to do anyway." Yoshika said.

"Ly… Lynne-chan!?" Lynne face went beet red when she got called.

"Ah sorry… I'm sorry if I'm not polite." Yoshika apologized.

"No… it's alright. It's fine." Lynne said.

As they hang up the laundry Lynne said, "Yoshika-chan… you're so great…"

"Eh? Why?" Yoshika asked, confused.

"I mean… not seeing your parents… fighting you own battles…" Lynne continued with sadness in her eyes.

"Ah… it's normal…" Yoshika answered as if it's obvious.

"To protect the ones you love, a person can do anything." Yoshika continued.

"But… I couldn't… I'm scared…" Lynne said while she started trembling.

"My homeland… it's the last battle front for the Karlsland Hive… and now that I know what's happening… I'm scared." Lynne started sobbing.

"Lynne-chan…" Yoshika started to speak, worried.

"Ah… it's no matter." Lynne stopped Yoshika, "I'm useless after all."

After saying that, she took the basket and ran away.

Yoshika couldn't follow her and was soon lost in the base again.

* * *

_'There must be something I can do for her…'_ Yoshika though to herself as she finally reached the lab.

Ichiro who heard the door opening said, "Ursula did you get the oil lubricant I…"

He stopped midway and saw his daughter.

"Yoshika~" Ichiro almost jumped in happiness as he continued, "What are you doing here?"

"I just want to see you work." Yoshika replied.

"Is that so… then I better make you proud." Ichiro said with fire in his eyes.

"I'm looking forward to it." Yoshika said as she went beside her father and see him tinkering with a Striker Unit.

She then noticed that this Striker was far different than any other Striker she has ever seen_. 'This Striker… it's different…'_

"Dad… this Striker Unit…" Yoshika started to ask.

"You noticed? As expected of my daughter!" Ichiro said as he tried to hug Yoshika.

Yoshika who evaded quickly continued to ask, "What is this?"

Ichiro, who missed his hug with a dejected face answered, "A prototype Striker… we call it…"

"Jet Striker!" Ursula said as she entered the lab and brought a tin can onto the desk, "Here professor, the oil."

"Jet? How does it work?" Yoshika asked, filled with curiosity.

"It's a powerful magic engine will convert all magic into pure force that will speed up the wearer." Ichiro explained.

"Flight will be less restricted and its speed is much higher." Ursula continued.

"No problems whatsoever yet for now… we will soon test it… in a few days or so." Ichiro concluded.

"So… now I have some questions for you…" Ursula took a pen and a notepad as she came close to Yoshika.

"How does it feel to be part Neuroi? Can you fly? What are those thing you wear that is similar to a Striker Unit?" She asked.

"Ah…" Yoshika is overwhelmed by the questions.

"Any changes to feelings, lifestyle, thought process?" Ursula continued her barrage of questions.

"Ummm…" Yoshika tried to interrupt.

"How is your magic? What have you done all these years?" Ursula ignored her and continued asking.

"Excuse me!" Yoshika shouted as she ran as quickly as possible.

At her back she can only hear Ursula shouting "WAAIITT!" and her father, Ichiro, was laughing out loud.

* * *

She ran and stopped when she found herself on the outskirts of the base facing the sea.

She looked up into the air and was blinded by the bright sun for a moment.

Suddenly she saw some flying figures.

Trude and Erica are flying around firing at each other with paintballs.

Mio is on the flight path watching something and when Yoshika walked close, she saw Lynne on her belly with her anti-tank rifle and was aiming at a faraway target.

Suddenly without warning she fired.

"Not bad! But aim lower!" Mio said as she looked at the practice target 1 km away.

"Try again!" Mio ordered.

"Yes!" Lynne answered as she cocked her gun and aimed again.

She fired again.

"Nice shot!" Mio said as she confirmed the destruction of the practice target.

"Woooaaahh~" Yoshika said in admiration.

The sudden voice shocks the two.

"Miyafuji! What are you doing here?" Mio asked in confusion.

"I wandered around… and I got lost." Yoshika answered.

"By the way Lynne-chan what do you mean you're useless when you can shoot like that?" Yoshika asked.

"I… I um… I'm sorry!" Lynne shouted as she ran away.

"Wha… wait!" Yoshika wanted to stop her.

"Miyafuji!" Mio said as she stopped her, "Let her be."

"…" Yoshika could say nothing as she stared at the running figure now quite far away.

Minna then walked near the two of them noticing Lynette running and said, "You know that the front line against the Karlsland Hive is her homeland right?"

"I've been told so… by herself." Yoshika said sadly.

"That's quite surprising… Lynette is rather… shy." Minna said while raising her brows.

"Why? Why did she say that she is useless?" Yoshika asked.

"She… doesn't perform well under pressure." Minna replied.

"What do you mean?" Yoshika asked curiously.

"She has always been good in training…" Mio said.

"But the pressure of protecting her homeland causes her to… slip in the battlefield." Minna concluded.

"Oh…" Yoshika understood the meaning of the sentence.

"Then she has to believe in herself!" Yoshika said as she strengthens her resolve to help Lynette.

Suddenly the Neuroi Alarm blared, signaling a Neuroi.

"Tch! Neuroi!" Trude says as both Erica and Trude stopped their training.

"We need to change to live ammunition!" Erica says.

They flew back to the hangar.

On the other side, Mio shouted into the intercom, "Where is it heading?"

"It's here…" Yoshika whispered to them

The person in the intercom replied, "It's on a straight course towards this base!"

Minna and Mio looked at Miyafuji.

"How did you know?" Mio asked

"I can feel them… they're not here to attack… call off your friends." Yoshika assured them.

"I'll trust you for now." Minna says as she ordered, "Witches stand by at the hangar! I repeat! Stand by at the hangar!"

A Neuroi then flew straight above them before stopping and flying to Yoshika.

"Yes… what is it…?" Yoshika asked the single Neuroi (I want to put a classification, the rocket class made for speed not really a combatant but any Neuroi can do fine).

"**I have a report from Axion, Commander! The Karlsland Hive has made its move! We are readying our forces at the Gallian Hive to repel the incoming threat!" **the Neuroi reported.

"Is that so… tell Axion this… If this is a battle of attrition, hold the fort well and hold out! I hope that I can get the humans' help for this on time." Yoshika ordered. "Leave! Now!"

The Neuroi screeched an affirmative before speeding towards the Gallian Hive.

"What was that?" Mio asked.

"You don't understand?" Yoshika replied.

"We couldn't understand… Sanya did not interpret anything and nothing is going on our intercoms." Minna said.

"This is a problem… we need to understand each other… I'll ask my father for help… but for now I need to tell you some bad news." Yoshika said grimly.

* * *

The Witches that are on standby were called to the meeting room.

Ichiro and Ursula too were called.

When they reached the room, they found Mio, Minna and Yoshika waiting.

"It seems I have bad news…" Yoshika started.

She tells them about the report of the war and about the Neuroi warfront on the border of Gallia and Karlsland and proposed to quicken her plans.

"This can cause serious damages." Yoshika said, concerned.

"To the Neuroi!?" Perrine exclaimed in anger.

"Calm down!" Mio said.

"I did not say that… I'm concerned about the land… this war may scar both Gallian and Karlsland lands." Yoshika explained her concerns.

Perrine who sped up to her own conclusion sat down and apologized, "Sorry… I… don't know what got over me."

"It's alright… I know you're concerned." Minna consoled her and asked, "What are we going to do?"

Yoshika looked at the watching witches and said, "I would try to convince your higher ups to help…"

"It's impossible!" Mio exclaimed, "Those warmongers wouldn't even lift a finger for something not beneficial to them!"

"It is true…" Ichiro agreed with Mio and so does every Witch.

"Who said 'they' are going to help?" Yoshika replied.

All were confused…_ 'Who will she be asking help from?_' they wondered.

"I would request the 'Strike Witches' to help me." Yoshika said with a mischievous smile.

Mio and Minna understanding the statement nodded at each other.

The rest of the Witches however were shocked about the proposal.

Fighting alongside Neuroi.

"I know that it'll take some time to sink in, but it's fine for now." Yoshika concluded.

Yoshika walked to her father and said with her Commander's voice, "Professor Ichiro."

Ichiro was shocked at how his daughter addressed him.

'_So this is official business… Can't help it then._' Ichiro thought to himself and replied, "Yes? What did you call me for?"

"I need your help. We need a device to translate the Neuroi language to human language." Yoshika stated.

The Witches except Mio and Minna were shocked at the preposterous request

"Is this possible?" Ichiro asked.

"It is… I know how but I need the right tools and a pair of hands." Yoshika said with a smile on her face (not a cute one… it's a hybrid between mischievous smile and evil grin… showing superior intelligence!)

"Is that so… then I shall help to the end with all my power..." Ichiro replied.

"Ursula." Yoshika looked at the ensign.

"Yes!?" Ursula replied with a shocked voice.

"I need your help too… you had some experience with the professor, right?" Yoshika asked with a Commander tone.

"Quite a bit, actually." Ursula replied.

"Then come with us and maybe I'll answer your questions, too." Yoshika grinned as she exited the room with Ichiro behind her.

Ursula ran after them in a hurry.

The still in a daze Witches are staring at their Commander questioningly as if all of them ask, _'What should we do now?'_

"It's been a long day for all of us! You can rest for now but be alert! You are dismissed!" Minna concluded the meeting.

They then all went back to their rooms still a bit dazed at the information that was received.

"This will take quite a while for them to understand it all." Mio said to herself.

"Don't speak like you know it all Mio… you too were confused like they are." Minna commented as she giggled.

"Ah, it's all right… I'm going to rest for a while… hope she could do what she said." Mio said, full of hope.

Minna knowing of who 'she' is, Miyafuji, also said, "We can but only hope can we?"

They then exited the room going to their respective rooms.

* * *

In the lab, things were going the wrong way.

"Should we put this part here?" Ichiro asked.

"No… here… this is a better position." Yoshika countered.

"But it wouldn't work best!" Ursula exclaimed.

"We only need to be able to communicate. The batteries must be as efficient as possible." Yoshika replied.

"Who suggested making an ear piece?" Ichiro asked in despair.

Yoshika and Ursula both shouted, "You did!"

"What about miscommunication? It will be constantly be in the battlefield!" Ursula continued her argument.

"Not being able to communicate is a worse matter!" Yoshika countered again.

"Umm… you two…" Ichiro said timidly as he tried to stop their argument.

"What?" Both of them looked at the professor with blazing eyes.

Ichiro cowered but managed to say, "If they are magical… we don't need batteries."

The two then notice that and both nodded in acceptance.

Their work continued till the sun fall into the horizon.

"Ahhh finished at last!" Ursula sighed tiredly.

"Ugh… I need a bath." Ichiro said to himself.

"I need one too… whose fault is it that the oil can blow up?" Yoshika asked as she looked in Ursula's direction.

"What did you say!? It's not my fault!" Ursula replied irritated.

"Who charged magic that unstable into a small piece?" Yoshika argued.

"Well can you do better?" Ursula said starting to get angry.

"Now, now, you two… it's okay… it's no one's fault… make up now." Ichiro tried to make both of them to reconcile but the two of them just said, "Hmph!" as they looked away from each other.

Yoshika and Ursula both head to the bath house both still irritated at each other.

* * *

Both of them undressed themselves and entered into the bath.

"Woaaahhh~" Yoshika exclaimed as she looked at the large bath. "So big..."

"Heh... it's one of the benefits of being in this base." Ursula explained while taking a bar of soap. "Here, I'll help you clean it..." Ursula said as she brought Yoshika to a nearby mirror and started scrubbing.

"You are actually kind are you?" Yoshika asked.

"Hmph! I'm not being kind!" Ursula replied "It's just my mistake..."

"It's all right... let me help you too later." Yoshika said.

They take turns scrubbing each other's back cleaning the oil and tar on their body and finally slipped into the hot water.

"Ahhh..." Both sighed blissfully.

"Its been quite a while since I've had a dip in hot water..." Yoshika said blissfully, relaxing in the water with her towel on her head.

"Hot water? How did you take a bath?" Ursula asked with curiosity in her voice.

"Even though I dont sweat when im Neuroified... I still take a bath you know... I try to find underground springs or waterfalls where I could be hidden from radar and sight..." Yoshika answered.

"It's a wonder we've never seen you." Ursula said.

"Of course~ I planned everything perfectly!" Yoshika exclaimed proudly puffing her noexistent chest.

Luchinni then come barging in and jumped into the bath while shouting "Wheeeeee~!"

After making a big splash she then started swimming in the bath.

Shirley came in not long after and asked in surprise , "Oh! Yoshika~ Ursula~ how long have you been here?"

"Not too long." Ursula answered.

"We've just entered." Yoshika continued.

Luchinni then slipped to the back of Yoshika and grabbed her chest while dissapointed said, "Consolation prize..."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shirley laughed as she went and dipped herself into the hot water. Shirley continued, "If you don't eat, you will never grow up!"

Lynne then came in and after seeing Yoshika went to the far edge of the bath.

Yoshika is a little worried about the fact.

"Don't worry... she can be... quite shy..." Shirley consoled Yoshika.

Yoshika went near her anyway.

"Hey... Lynne-chan..." Yoshika called her.

Lynne can only jolt in shock and paused whatever she is doing.

She then turned back and asked with a little voice, "What is it...?"

"I want to be friends with you." Yoshika asserted her.

"Friends..." Lynne wavered.

"I will help you to the best I can... so... don't lose hope..." Yoshika said.

With a little tear by her side she answered, "All right then..."

"Yosh!" Yoshika happily exclaimed and continued, "We're friends right?"

"Yeah... I would love to be friends with you... Yoshika-chan" Lynnete answered.

Yoshika was happy about her new friend and nickname so she voluntered to help Lynne wash her back.

* * *

Yoshika and Lynne went to the cafeteria together and had dinner.

Both chatted happily about random things, like what they have been doing lately and what they want to do...

"Whats you favourite food?" Lynne asked.

"Yellowtail sashimi, I guess..." Yoshika wondered.

"You guess?" Lynne though out loud, confused.

"Ah... I've not eaten anything the last 4 years..." Yoshika explained.

"..." Lynne can only stare in shock.

Eating their food, the conversation continues.

"How did you become a Commander?" Lynne asked questioningly.

"Umm... I... just got the position somehow..." Yoshika answered reluctant to explain.

Lynne that noticed the reluctance switched topics.

"Can you cook?" Lynne changed the topic.

"Not really... I haven't cooked in 4 years..." Yoshika said as she looked at her hands.

Lynne smiled and said, "Don't worry... It's easy... I'll teach you how."

"Thanks." Yoshika said as she sipped on her Miso soup.

"Ahh... its been quite a while since I've been this full." Yoshika said in bliss.

"If you don't eat how did you live?" Lynne asked.

Ursula who heard this came close to eavesdrop on them.

"As long as my Core is active I will live. Although its maintenance is hard..." Yoshika said before sighing.

"Maintenance?" Lynne asked confused.

"I have two hearts both Neuroi and human..." Yoshika tried to explain.

"..." Lynne tilted her head still confused.

"Ummm.. this is hard to explain..." Yoshika gave up explaining.

Ursula was disappointed that she couldn't hear any interesting information.

* * *

_After dinner..._

"It's getting late... we better rest for tommorow." Lynne said.

"Yawn~~ you're right Lynne-chan... but where can I sleep?" Yoshika asked as she wondered.

Mio who heard the conversation as she exit the cafeteria said, "The Miyafuji house has a room left. You can even sleep with your parents... its been quite a while, hasn't it?"

"Ah..." Yoshika heard about living together and went silent.

"Aa... did I say something wrong?" Mio asked in confusion.

"If you dont want to... you can share a bed with me..." Lynne said out of consideration.

"Lynne-chan.. what you said..." Yoshika said with a light blush on her face.

Lynette, who then started to understand the meaning of her sentence, went full tomato red and panickly said, "Ah... no... no... that's not what I mean!"

"I'm just kidding..." Yoshika said as she laughed and continued, "The house still has an empty room, right?"

"Are you sure?" Mio asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay..." Yoshika said as she went in the direction of the beach.

The two Witches stand there looking at Yoshika's back for a while in concern before heading back to their rooms.

* * *

Yoshika managed to get to the house near the beach without getting lost.

She tried to knock the door but her hand suddenly stopped...

She is reluctant.. for a while she doubted her decision...

Ichiro who noticed someone is outside went to open the door.

Through the window, he saw Yoshika outside.

When he saw Yoshika outside he smiled brightly and shouted, "Yoshika's here!"

Sayaka and Akimoto rushed out onto the door.

Ichiro opened the door.

Yoshika is quite happy with this so she said with a slight smile, "I will be sleeping in the empty room on the second floor starting from today. I will be here quite a while so please take care of me mom.. dad... grandma..."

Sayaka and Ichiro looked at each other before saying "Welcome home, Yoshika."

"I'm home..." Yoshika whispered quietly as she entered the house.

* * *

In the house, Yoshika went up to the second floor while saying, "Goodnight mom... dad..."

"How about me?" Akimoto asked.

"Ehehe.. you too grandma..." Yoshika said as she giggled.

"Good night sweetheart..." Sayaka said.

"Sweet dreams." Ichiro said.

Yoshika went to the empty room quickly.

Tired, she fell onto the bed head first.

_'Finally... tommorow will be the beginning...'_ Yoshika thought to herself before blacking out.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Chapter 7: The Karlsland Incident**

* * *

It is but 12.30 am in the morning... but Yoshika was awake... She is awake... but she does not move...

She stared at the ceiling thoughtlessly for quite some moment before waking up completely...

"Sigh... I'm not sleepy at all..." Yoshika sighed as she walked to the window. "1 o'clock in the morning... not even close to sunrise" Yoshika complained as she open her window and see the night sky.

The sky is so clear through her eyes...

She looked around. She could see the little forest by the edge of the base.

The little critters and the crabs at the beach. (Yes she got night vision)

Yet she did not open it to see the stars nor to look around.

Magic hummed in the area as Yoshika closed her eyes. Her ears and tail appear and when she opens her eyes... they're red.

**"Armatura." **Yoshika whispered to herself as she materialized her armor. "I better check up on those guys..." Yoshika said as she flew out of the window quietly.

She flew low near the ocean and when she is in a safe position, set her wings on speed and went into supersonic drive.

Within minutes, she flew through few thousand kilometers towards the Gallian hive without detection.

* * *

When she is nearing the Hive... she received a transmission.

**"Identify yourself!" **A scouting Neuroi screeched.

**"It's me..."** Yoshika answered (With Neuroi Screech).

**"Co... Commander!"** the Neuroi replied.

Yoshika stopped in front of the Neuroi and asked "How is the Hive doing? Is Axion handling it well?"

**"Ma'am! We are focusing our troops here in Gallia! We have asked to move some forces from the other Hives here! Enemy forces might attack at fastest a week! That is all I know, ma'am!"** the Neuroi reported.

"I see no need of checking myself do I... keep up the good work!" Yoshika complimented the Neuroi Scouter.

**"Ma'am!"** The Neuroi said as it flew off towards another direction.

_'They'll be fine... I guess I should head back... this time maybe I should look around a bit...'_ Yoshika thought. _'I'll make a long detour through Karlsland.'_ Yoshika finally concluded before speeding off towards Karlsland.

* * *

After a few minutes, her map showed that she has passed the border.

She stopped her flight and activated her "Telescoping Search Eye" to look around.

She could only see debris and ruined buildings.

_'So much destruction…'_ She thought to herself for she is one of the few that did not go on the Karlsland campaign._'Is conflict and destruction unavoidable?'_ Yoshika asked to herself as she saw a stone block turn into dust on her left hand when she picked it up. "NO! I will not allow this to continue..." She said to herself as she comes to a conclusion. "This day will be the beginning of tomorrow." Yoshika said resolute of her decision.

She flew towards the Karlsland Hive that is still far away with her "Telescoping Search Eye" still active.

She kept looking out for scouts and stayed under the radar. She then went down to the ground to find a perfect position to spy on the Hive.

She deactivated her eye and walked under the dark morning sky.

* * *

It is 3 am in the morning.

A few Karlsland soldiers were walking around trying to get closer to the Hive and find survivors if possible.

"Sigh... What the hell is the Fuhrer thinking telling us to come to this wasteland without support?" a soldier, most probably the squad leader complained to himself.

_Crack!_ A sound of stone breaking was heard and a nearby house fell into ruin.

The Squad leader in an angry voice shouted "HEY! WATCH IT!"

"Cough! Cough! Sorry, SIR! Cough!" The soldier that touched the house support replied still coughing from the dust.

"Be careful! We do not want to alert the Neuroi of our presence..." the leader said as he looked around as if waiting for anything to suddenly jump out of the dark sky.

After a while, it's still silent.

"It seems there's nothing..." The leader said as he told his men to start moving again.

"Nothing at all, sir!" A private confirmed.

"Nothing except for debris and us sir!" Another private assured.

"Move out!" The leader said to the team.

They traversed the barren town and they heard footsteps.

Suddenly the whole squad is alarmed. They heard the footsteps from a nearby building.

They slowly entered it aiming their gun at the darkness. In end of the dark hall there is a shadow looking out of the window.

They don't know what it is so they moved carefully.

"Who's there?" The squad leader shouted at the shadow.

Whatever made that sound was shocked as she gasped out loud.

The soldiers put down their weapons when they heard the female voice.

"A survivor!" A private said with surprise.

"A survivor..." The leader said without happiness as if pitying.

The shadow however started to run away.

"Wait!" The squad leader shouted. "All of you! Get her to safety!"

"We are here to help you!" A private yelled.

"We're not here to harm you!" Another private yelled.

The soldiers chased after the mysterious girl.

* * *

Yoshika was walking around in the morning sky.

There's nothing around except debris.

She was walking around and suddenly she heard people shouting.

_'It sounds like soldiers.'_ Yoshika thought.

She jumped from the road to the second floor of a nearby house and watched from the windows. (Imagine a house no roof and yes... Miyafuji basic RPG stats are now basically superhuman without magic and multiplied when she does use magic.)

_'What are they doing here?'_ Yoshika wondered.

The soldiers moved slowly and silently. One soldier suddenly looked into the house that Miyafuji is hiding in. His friend touched the support pillar, the only one that's holding the battered building up.

Yoshika, in panic of being found out, tried to jump onto another house.

She succeeded but the strength of her jump brought down the house.

_'Is that person all right?'_ Yoshika thought with worry. The soldier came out of the door coughing from the dust. _'It seems they're all right.'_ Yoshika thought, relieved.

The soldiers then wait alarmed and moved after a while.

_'It wouldn't be bad to watch them and listen to them before spying on the Hive.'_ Yoshika thought to herself. _'But I need a disguise...'_ she thought as she found a long piece of tattered black cloth at the corner of the house. _'Just perfect.'_ she thought as she covered her head and whole body with it. _'I should be well hidden in the dark like this...'_ Yoshika thought to herself.

With this thought in her mind she jumped from building to building unseen by the soldiers.

Sometimes walking through halls of houses to hear the soldiers' conversations.

Suddenly, _"Bzzzt... Bzzzt... Bzzzt…"_

But she just couldn't hear it clearly enough but then she heard something.

_'This wavelength... a communication channel... Where from?'_ Yoshika wondered as she looked out the window.

Wanting to hear the sound clearer she walked towards the window. Little did she know that she stepped loud enough for the soldiers outside to hear.

The soldiers crept quietly and Yoshika heard a shout "Who's there?"

Shocked, Yoshika gasped. She held tight onto the cloth that covered her face and body. The voice in her head disappeared and she continued to stare at the soldiers.

After staring at the soldiers who are getting relaxed, she ran reflexively.

The soldiers started chasing her. In panic she kept running.

She could not transform with them looking and she couldn't show herself to them. She wasn't able to simply fly away, either. She thought every possible choice she could take but the simplest way is... _'Run!'_

She ran around with the soldiers chasing her.

The soldiers are getting tired. They are breathing raggedly but Yoshika is in top condition.

_'I can do this!'_ Yoshika thought hopefully.

But that hopeful thought is not enough.

She ran into a dead end.

The soldiers are at her back.

One of them is saying, "Finally!"

"Don't worry we wouldn't bite!" another soldier said.

"Where were you from?" another asked.

Yoshika backed up against the wall... without anything she could do she shivered in fear...

"All of you BACK OFF!" The squad leader shouted, "You're scaring the little miss!"

"Sorry, sir!" a soldier replied.

The troops all start backing up.

"We'll rest here for a while!" The leader said. "Look at you guys! Tired! After chasing a little girl!" The leader complained.

"But..." a soldier wanted to explain.

"NO BUTS! After this mission, I'm whipping your asses into shape!" The leader promised.

The soldiers could only groan.

* * *

The soldiers then made a campfire.

They started taking out their breakfast rations. The squad leader opened his can of bean soup.

Yoshika... hungry stomach growled in response...

The squad leader noticed that and pointed that can to her saying, "Here you can have some."

Yoshika doubted for a while and then slowly take the can and ate the soup.

"Thank you..." Yoshika said in perfect English.

Yoshika watched the bulky bearded old man. She saw that his rank is lieutenant corporal... quite high...

"My name is Henry McMarlow" The bulky man introduced himself.

"That guy is Jones, Marstringer, Alan ..." The corporal introduced his unit. 24 people in all.

The soldiers that noticed they were being introduced wave their hand when being pointed at.

"Where were you from?" the corporal asked.

"Britannia..." Yoshika answered. _'I'll try to lie as least as possible.'_ she thought to herself.

"What's your name little miss?" the corporal asked.

The soldiers all went silent to listen to Yoshika.

Yoshika thought of any name she could think of and said, "Lily... my name is Lily."

"So... Lily... where are your parents?" The corporal asked with pity in his eyes.

"I don't know..." Yoshika answered. Inside herself she thought, _'I'm sorry to deceive you...'_

"Your home?" the corporal continued.

"I don't know." Yoshika answered again.

The soldiers around started giving a depressed look and some gave pitying looks.

'_Don't look at me like that...'_ Yoshika though to herself.

Then she notices something. Something is moving at high speed in the air.

"You people better leave this place..." Yoshika said with a warning tone.

"AHAHAHAHA why is that little miss?" The corporal asked.

"It's dangerous..." Yoshika kept warning as she looked at the sky.

"As if we did not know!" The soldier named Billy joked.

The soldiers all started laughing but a purple beam fired in their direction.

Yoshika's reaction is a bit too late.

She expanded a barrier as large as possible but the beam came first.

Out of the 24 soldiers, only 8 survived and the corporal survived with half his body gone.

"Argh... Damn it... Is this where I die?" the corporal asked to himself. "ALL OF YOU RUN! RETREAT! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME! LEAVE!" the corporal shouted.

The petrified soldiers snapped out of their trance and started running away with the cover of the building.

Yoshika stood by the dying corporal.

"Little miss... you better run too... I wish... I could see my daughter one last time..." The corporal said as he looked at a tiny picture he took out from his pocket.

After looking at that picture one last time his hand fell lifelessly. He stopped breathing.

Yoshika closed his eyes as tears dropped on the man's face.

_'I caused this to happen...'_ she thought to herself.

In anger, she stared at the night sky, located the Neuroi and screamed, "Aaaaaa... aaaaAAAA... AAAAAAARRRGGHH!"

Yoshika jumped upwards with full strength.

With a blast, that blast of the cloth covering her flew into the air, and she was ready for battle.

"There shall be no mercy for you!" Yoshika shouted with tears in her eyes as she flew towards the Neuroi.

* * *

She stared at the Neuroi that fired the beam earlier.

**"Who are you!? A single Witch? This will be a nice night!"** The Neuroi screeched.

**"Do not underestimate me, for this will be over in a second!"** Yoshika shouted with anger.

**"Who are you? How are you able to speak Neuroican?!" **The Neuroi shocked by the strange Witch.

"No time for words... die..." Yoshika said before firing multiple beams.

_'Wings set to offensive.'_ Yoshika changed wing mode.

_'Fire!'_ she thought as energy charged at her back and beams fired at her enemy.

The Neuroi was shocked. **"Beams!? A Witch is using beams! This is something I must report to the King!"** The Neuroi thought aloud.

"If you survived." Yoshika said coldly as more beams fired from her back.

**"Hah! What do you think your beams can do to...?"** The Neuroi laughed. The sentence never finished as multiple beams punctured the Neuroi and tore it apart. It shrieks loudly in pain. **"Impossible... my armor... like paper..."** The Neuroi said in disbelief.

"Disappear." Without mercy Yoshika extended her claws wider than the dark sky glowing bright into a huge sword.

She swung her sword of light down striking at the Neuroi.

The Neuroi couldn't even fathom anything. It was destroyed instantly... Not a single trace of the Neuroi is left...

After confirming total destruction of the Neuroi and checking the vicinity for further threats, Yoshika flew down to where the body of the kind corporal lies.

She looked around for the 16 people that disintegrated from the beam.

_'This is all my fault.'_She thought as she looked at the aftermath of the beam. She looked at the picture that the corporal had dropped when he died. It was a normal family picture. _'His wife and daughter will never see him again…'_ she thought sadly.

She fell to her knees.

Yoshika started sobbing...

As tears fall of her face... she could only say two words... "I'm sorry..."

* * *

It was around 5am in the morning. The sun is starting to rise in the horizon.

Mio is meditating at the beach with her bamboo sword by her side. She had finished her set of swings and is now in mental training.

When she is focusing she heard flight.

When she opens her eyes she saw Yoshika landing at the beach, whose mind was occupied by her thoughts and failed to notice Mio watching her.

Mio wanted to call out to her and ask what is she doing... but she stopped when she saw that her eyes are red, possibly from crying.

_'What happened?'_ is the only thing Mio thought at the moment.

* * *

Yoshika walked around the base for a while before finding the way to the cafeteria.

When she walked in, Lynne is in the kitchen.

Noticing someone had entered the cafeteria for breakfast she shouted as she looked out of the kitchen window, "Wait a little bit more! It's almost do..." Lynne stopped when she saw Yoshika. "Yoshika-chan! What are you doing here this early?" Lynne asked as she headed back in to check the stew.

"Nothing actually..." Yoshika replied, ending the conversation.

It was silent for a while before Yoshika asked, "Can I help you with anything?"

Lynne giggled and pointed at the vegetables at her side.

Beside her, batches of vegetables in baskets are stacked.

There are tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers, Turnips, and many more.

Then Lynne says, "Why don't you help me cut these vegetables? I'm making salad."

"Sure~" Yoshika said as she entered the kitchen.

"Here's the knife... chop gently like this..." Lynne showed the chopping knife and demonstrated how to use it. "It's easy, right?" Lynne asked as she chopped the first batch of vegetables.

"Umm..." Yoshika nodded her head and tried to chop the cabbage.

The results... were horrifying.

The vegetables are cut unevenly. Some are cut beyond recognition.

Yoshika even got cuts on her fingers.

"Uhhuhuhuh..." Yoshika cried a bit disappointedly as she cut her finger again.

"Ummm... it's fine~" Lynne try to console her. "In a while you will get the hang of it!" Lynne explained as she went to take the plasters again.

"Ah! There's no need to..." Yoshika stopped her.

"But... your finger... ah..." Lynne said confused but stopped when she saw that Yoshika's fingers were healed.

_'It's as if it never happened in the first place...'_ she thought.

Yoshika peeled off the plasters that were on her fingers.

To Lynne's surprise, all the cuts have disappeared.

"I heal fast..." Yoshika said. "Does this scare you?" She asked.

"No... Not at all!" Lynne replied immediately.

"Hey, hey! When are you going to finish cooking at this rate?" Mio urged at the side.

"Ah! Right!" Lynne said as she hurriedly continued cooking.

"Oi, Yoshika... I have a question for you... come here for a sec." Mio tells Yoshika.

"?" Yoshika walked out the kitchen towards Mio who went to sit by a table.

"Sakamoto-san... how long have you been here?" Yoshika asked as she sits on a chair directly on the opposite side facing Mio.

"I've been behind you all this time." Mio replied.

Yoshika wondered a bit and she remembered about her landing on the beach without checking the vicinity.

"You saw me... on the beach..." Yoshika said.

"Yes..." Mio confirmed.

"What's your question?" Yoshika said as she gets serious.

"What happened?" Mio simply asked.

"Eh?" Yoshika said as she is confused by the question.

"?" Mio is confused at the reaction Yoshika gave.

"What happened?" Yoshika repeated the question.

"Yes... I want to know what happened! I saw you wearing a sad face... did anything happen?" Mio asked in consideration.

Yoshika thought for a while before remembering the incident she was involved in.

"Ah..." Yoshika exclaimed.

_'Did I look that down?'_ Yoshika thought to herself as she remembered.

"So?" Mio continued her question.

"..." Yoshika stayed silent.

"..." Mio waited.

They stayed silent, staring at each other, until...

"It's... nothing..." Yoshika said as she stood up.

"So be it... if you want to share this to anyone, know that I'll always be listening." Mio said.

Lynne who heard the whole conversation also said, "I'll be here too Yoshika-chan... sometimes it's better to share rather keeping it alone, you know..."

"Thanks..." Yoshika said as she left the cafeteria, losing her appetite.

* * *

Yoshika wandered aimlessly around the base.

She walked and thoughtlessly went into the meeting room. To her surprise, Minna is there filing her paper and reports.

"Ara? Miyafuji?" Minna asked quite surprised.

"Ah... Minna-san" Yoshika replied as she snapped out of her trance.

"What are you doing here?" Minna asked.

"Nothing actually..." Yoshika said as Minna continued to write something, noticing that Minna have written quite a lot.

"Is that a report?" Yoshika asked.

"Yes... It's hard to report everything that happened yesterday... I barely had any sleep." Minna answered. "I don't think they'll believe this whole report anyway." Minna continued.

Yoshika thought to herself quite a while and finally spoke. "Can I ask a favor from you Minna-san?" Yoshika asked.

Minna stopped her pen, looked in the direction of Yoshika and asked, "What is this... favor?"

"I would like you to omit and change some part of that report." Yoshika said seriously.

"Is it about your identity? Don't worry; I didn't even mention it." Minna asserted Yoshika.

But Yoshika said with a mischievous smile, "That's not what I want you to do..."

"Then... what is it?" Minna raised her left brow in question.

"I would like you to hand in a false report..." Yoshika started.

"Tell nothing about the Queen and King; for I will explain them myself." Yoshika continued.

"Yourself?" Minna asked.

"Yes... myself... here is what you will write. 'We made contact with a Neuroi. Its leader said that it will act as a diplomat to discuss our future. War or peace. It requested to meet the queen of Britannia for it asked for the assistance of the Strike Witches'."

"What will this hope to achieve?" Minna asked with a little smile for she knows what Yoshika is thinking.

Yoshika too knows that someone like Minna would understand but continued to explain anyway, "I want those bastards hiding in the shadow to panic from lack of information and at the sudden appearance of me. I am sure someone will replace Trevor as general and this time... let's hope that he or she is on our side."

Minna nodded and said, "All right... that I can do... but... what will we do?"

"After filing that report... I'm sure I am going to get called to the Britannian Army Headquarters... we can start from there...I hope they have not found much about me..." Yoshika speaks of her plan.

"Let's see then..." Minna said as she scrapped the report she was making and started on a new one.

Both of them flashed smiles at one another, excited at what the results will be.

Yoshika then left the room and headed towards the lab.

* * *

As Yoshika nears the lab, she hears her father and Ursula working.

"... Is it here, professor?" Ursula asked to Ichiro.

"Yeah put it right there in the middle..." Ichiro replied.

Ursula slowly moved the contraption she is using to fit a small part into the earpiece they are making.

Yoshika entered the lab and was surprised to see two dozen earpieces with the last two in the making.

Ichiro, surprised by the visitor, dropped the piece. He grumbled a bit while picking up the metal piece.

"Yoshika! Where did you go this morning? I couldn't find you anywhere." Ichiro asked as he continued to put in the parts into the small piece.

"Ummm... I went out early morning for a breather." Yoshika lied perfectly.

"Is that so?" Ichiro replied.

"How is the piece working?" Yoshika asked to change the topic.

"If we make it right, it's supposed to work." Ursula said.

"We don't have a Neuroi to try it out with... Yoshika, why don't you call one of your friends?" Ichiro asked after explaining.

"There's no need to. I can speak with their language." Yoshika replied.

Ursula and Ichiro were quite surprised with the statement and stopped for a moment.

"I guess it's quite reasonable isn't it..." Ichiro said before he continued working.

"How do you learn it?" Ursula asked.

"Well... I need to... not all Neuroi can understand human language." Yoshika explained.

"How do those three manage to understand the human language?" Ichiro asked, referring to the "Invincible Trio".

"Those three are exceptionally intelligent~" Yoshika said proudly. "They are the strongest Neuroi in the Gallian Hive besides me! Even though I am the strongest, even I may not beat them when they're working together perfectly."

"Ah... right." Ursula said without interest as she finished her work and is now inspecting it.

Not long after, Ichiro too finished his piece.

The pieces were lined up on the table as Ichiro and Ursula looked at their creation.

"Why don't we try it now? Here…" Yoshika said as she gave an earpiece to Ursula.

"Right." Ursula took the piece and put it into her ear but asked, "How do I use it?"

"Theoretically, activate your magic and it will turn on by itself." Ichiro said.

"Is that so?" Ursula replied as she activated her magic and her ears and tail popped out.

**"Can you understand me?"** Yoshika asked.

"Why are you asking me in Karlslandian!?" Ursula asked.

Ichiro wore a surprised look at Ursula. "Karlslandian?" He asked.

"What?" Ursula asked the professor.

"Take off that piece and hear what Yoshika says..." Ichiro replied.

Ursula took off her piece in confusion while Yoshika smiled before saying,** "Do you understand me now?"**

"Wha!?" Ursula exclaimed in surprise.

"It works really well." Yoshika said as she nodded her head in admiration.

"She doesn't even know that you're not using human language..." Ichiro says in happiness.

"And I heard it with my mothertounge?" Ursula asked.

Before Ichiro could say anything else, Yoshika said, "It will make do for now... too bad only Witches can use this..."

Ichiro then noticed about the fact and nodded before saying, "That's true..."

"So what are we going to do?" Ursula asked.

"What else?" Ichiro said with a smile.

Yoshika too smiled before saying, "Lets tell everyone about it."

They took the pieces and head out calling all the Witches in the base into the meeting room.

They did not notice that the sun had gone quite far down and the sky is red.

* * *

**A/N: This fic is now a collaboration fic between me and P4Nd0RaS, so please thank him too!**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Chapter 8: The Beginning of a New Tomorrow**

* * *

After dinner, the Witches all went into the conference room since they received an urgent call and waited.

The three then came in suddenly shocking most of them.

"We're done!" Ursula shouted in glee.

"Here, use these ear pieces..." Yoshika said as she started giving each Witch an earpiece.

"These magic ear pieces are powered by magic so it should be easy." Ichiro started to explain. "These also could connect to our usual communication frequency and can connect from far away granting better range. They will have better protection... the piece will be bound to whomever magic it used as battery so only you Witches would have these and nobody else could use it. It will be able to translate the Neuroi language as well."

"Try activating it... test it for yourself." Ursula said.

The Witches then took out their intercoms and replaced it with the new ear piece.

"Are you ready?" Ichiro asked to the Witches as he looked at Yoshika.

The Witches then activated their magic. Ears and tails popped out of each of them.

"We will test the translator first... we can find out its maximum range later." Ichiro said.

"If you please..." Ursula beckoned to Yoshika.

**"What language do you hear me saying right now?" **Yoshika asked.

"English." Shirley said.

"Karlslandian..." Minna said.

"English…" Lynne said.

"Gallian!" Perrine said surprised.

"Fusoan." Mio said.

"Orussian..." Sanya said.

"Romagnan." Luchinni said.

"Suomusan..." Eila said.

"Karlslandian." Erica said.

"Karlslandian." Trude said.

They spoke different languages and were shocked at each other.

"Heh~ It was Karlslandian to me." Ursula said, amused at the results.

**"Now... don't use magic please and listen to me once more." **Yoshika said.

They all deactivated their magic.

**"What do you hear** **now?"** Yoshika asked.

The Witches were shocked, while Ichiro and Ursula grinned by the side.

"So... it's a success then..." Mio said.

"Not really…" Ursula replied.

"What does it lack?" Minna asked.

"Haven't you noticed? Only Witches can use these... I could not." Ichiro explained.

The Witches nodded at the explanation.

"Now that this issue is solved for now..." Yoshika said as she looked at Minna. "Any news?" She asked.

"Actually there is..." Minna answered.

"That's fast for them... Usually, it takes weeks!" Mio said in surprise.

"I guess this report knocked them off their feet, then." Ichiro commented.

"What does it say?" Yoshika asked with curiosity.

"We have been given 3 orders!" Minna said getting serious. "First is that all the Witches are to escort this 'Neuroi Diplomat' to the military headquarters after daybreak tomorrow!" She began.

The Witches all had a serious expression while listening.

"Second is that we will be the guards as the negotiation process goes on. Third is to not spread this information to anyone else!" Minna concluded

"This stinks of a trap!" Mio exclaimed.

"I can see that…" Minna replied.

"Ehe~ They're shaking in their pants~" Erica said cheerfully.

"An order is an order." Trude said at the side.

"They want to keep this to their advantage." Ichiro said.

"As expected of Trevor's subordinates... all of them are seasoned foxes." Yoshika mused.

"We have no choice, do we...?" Mio said, depressed.

"I think so... Mio..." Minna answered.

"AHAHAHAHA! It's just as I expected!" Yoshika suddenly laughed, shocking everyone present. "If they got a trap for me... I'll just bust out of it..." She said without fear.

They were so surprised at Yoshika's statement, that they couldn't say anything.

"I will be back tomorrow... at the beach at daybreak." Yoshika said as she headed to the door.

"Where are you going?" Ichiro asked.

"Well... I am worried about the Hive…" Yoshika answered.

"Is that so?" Mio asked.

"See you later then, Yoshika-chan!" Lynne said.

"See you all later." Yoshika said as she left.

Behind her she can hear Minna saying "Do you understand?" and the Witches all reply "Yes Ma'am!"

Yoshika went out of the base, Neuroified herself, and flew fast towards the Hive.

Almost arriving, she used radar to alert the Hive of her position.

* * *

She went into the Hive and went straight into the Core room and sees the three Axion, Ixia and Xalia there.

"How's the Hive?" Yoshika asked.

**"Running at optimum output, Commander."** Axion replied.

"How is the area?" Yoshika asked.

**"We have scouts at full alert, Commander..."** Ixia replied.

"How about our forces?" Yoshika asked.

**"On standby, and ready to let loose!"** Xalia answered.

"Any battle plan?" Yoshika asked.

**"We are thinking of making them focus on us and if possible have a small group infiltrate and sabotage the enemy Hive, stopping it from being active for** **a while."** Axion said.

"A good plan, but I don't think our trainees can do that... and without me or you three, the chain of command will collapse…" Yoshika said.

**"That is the problem... we don't have spare troops we can send." **Ixia said calmly.

**"We need the help of the humans."** Axion said.

**"Humans? Why do we need em?"** Xalia asked.

**"You never do understand strategy, do you...?"** Ixia hopelessly sighed.

"I will try..." Yoshika said as she nodded.

**"How is your Core?"** Axion asked, worried about something.

"It's fine… it's running on optimum level and I have not put any strain to it..." Yoshika replied.

**"But... last time..."** Axion said, even more worried.

"It won't happen again..." Yoshika cut off the sentence.

**"Now... we must prepare our plans... the Super Hive is coming and our moon base is expecting it to come faster than we expected... it is because of the electric maelstrom in the dark space that died down... in around two months they will arrive in the solar system..."** Ixia reported.

"Is that so? How about our reinforcements?" Yoshika asked.

**"Our own Super Hive will be coming faster due to the same reasons."** Axion reported.

"Why did I not receive a report faster?" Yoshika asked.

"**We received it just now and were thinking of visiting the Witch base to find you~"** Xalia answered.

"Is that so..." Yoshika said.

Yoshika and the three then spent the night putting together their strategy.

"This will hold them for quite some time..." Yoshika said as she noticed the sun rise. "I will visit the military base in Britannia... how about a field trip?" Yoshika asked to the three.

**"It doesn't really matter to me but... how about the base?"** Xalia asked.

"I'll have our main Core do its job..." Yoshika suggested.

**"She... is not exactly on good terms with you... right?"** Axion asked, concerned.

"It's not the time for internal dispute... we need her." Yoshika answered.

**"If it fits our purpose…"** Ixia said calmly.

"Let's go then." Yoshika said as she headed to the main Core room.

* * *

The four went to the huge Core that was in the middle of the room.

"OI! WAKE UP!" Yoshika shouted.

There is silence in the room.

**"She's... not waking up is she?"** Ixia asked.

**"She's still pissed, I guess…"** Xalia guessed.

Ixia only sighed.

"I guess I have no choice... she needs a little shock therapy." Yoshika said as she put her palms near each other and electricity blared into life.

_BZZZZZZZT!_

Electricity sparked the system as a voice shouted, **"GYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"**

"Are you awake now Tarra?" Yoshika asked.

**"Ouch! It hurts!"** the voice known as Tarra yelled.

"Oi... we need you right now!" Yoshika said.

**"Oh? Is that so? After turning me off... taking over the Hive's command... now you need me?"** Tarra asked in defiance.

"Tarrasque! I have more authority than you! I said you're doing it!" Yoshika ordered.

**"Hah! Why should I?"** Tarra asked angrily.

"Because I'm giving you command of this Hive." Yoshika replied.

**"I don't want to! ...Eh? Really?"** Tarra asked in disbelief.

"Yes... we have a war going on and we need you power." Yoshika pleaded.

**"Ehehehehe... is that so? Then I can't help it then! ME! The magnificent, will help YOU!"** Tarra exclaimed.

_'She's a pain... luckily, she's easy to manipulate.'_ Yoshika thought to herself. "You know what to do right?" Yoshika asked.

**"Of course~ I have been listening to all communication channels while asleep."**

"Oho? Then tell me what I will do next…" Yoshika requested.

**"You and those three at the back there will go to the human military base for an alliance."** Tarra begins. **"As the battle between the king's forces against ours will be in the borders between Karlsland and Gallia we will hold this position while some will lead a sabotage to weaken the enemy Hive. We currently have no reserve forces to do it so you are betting everything on those humans to help you. I am supposed to take command of the base while you're gone. That's all... right?"**

"Hmph... as expected of the Hive's mother system... I'll be counting on you, okay?" Yoshika complimented.

**"Sure~ I am the best, after all!"** Tarra boasted.

Yoshika left to meet the three outside.

"Sigh... She is such a pain." Yoshika thought out loud.

**"She's arrogant, after all…"** Axion said.

"Well then... let's go..." Yoshika said to the three.

The four exited the hive and went supersonic in the direction of the Witches' base.

* * *

"Where is she?" Mio asked.

"Yoshika-chan..." Lynne said, worried.

"She's coming." Sanya said suddenly as her "Magic Antenna" started glowing brighter; the left one was bright red while the right one was bright green.

"Is that so?" Minna asked.

"She's not alone... the trio is there with her..." Sanya added.

"Let's see…" Mio said as she opened her patch and looked afar. She saw the trio and Yoshika flying at high speed towards them.

Yoshika and the three abruptly stopped at the beach sending a wave of strong wind towards the Witches.

"Morning~" Yoshika shouted.

The Witches all braced for impact. Some of them, especially Lucchini, were almost blown away by the wave of strong wind.

"What was that…?" Minna asked.

"Sorry… stopping from hyper-drive is hard…" Yoshika said shyly.

**"So we going or not?"** Xalia asked.

**"We will meet with your General, right?"** Ixia asked.

"Ah... right. Air Marshall Adolfine Galland, specifically." Minna replied.

"So you all used the translators." Yoshika said.

"Of course~ after my hard work!" Ursula commented.

"You mean OUR hard work." Yoshika corrected, but then got serious. "No dawdling now, let's go! Lead the way, Strike Witches!" Yoshika ordered as she put on her mask.

They flew towards the Britannian Army Headquarters.

* * *

When they arrived soldiers are at stand by, and were tense... scared at the incoming Neuroi.

Yoshika smiled bitterly. _'Never thought I would be looked at like this…'_ she thought bitterly. "I am here to speak with you leader!" Yoshika shouted shocking all present humans in the base. "We do not want to continue this war!"

"There's no need to shout..." A woman said as she stepped out of the main building "We can speak... in my office... if you can understand..." The woman said as she walked back in.

Yoshika flew down and went into the main building.

The Witches docked their Striker Units in a hangar and walked in after her.

* * *

Yoshika and the Strike Witches stepped into a big room. There the woman stands in the middle.

"There's no need to be so tense… I wouldn't do anything." The woman said

The Witches too went in.

"My name is Adolfine Galland, and I am the representative of the Joint Army after Trevor went missing." Galland said.

Yoshika winced at the mention of Maloney's name.

"He is dead after all isn't he? Miyafuji Yoshika..." She continued.

The Witches were shocked. They are all thinking about how she could know about Yoshika's identity.

"As I expected... I should not have underestimated the intelligence bureau..." Yoshika said as she took of her mask. "It's been quite a while, Adolf-san..."

"Yoshika..." Galland tried to say.

But silence continued for quite a while. The Witches were tense about what will happen.

"I'm sorry..." Galland said.

The Witches were shocked; that was NOT what they expected her to say.

"I couldn't stop that man..." She continued while looking sad.

"It's not your fault…" Yoshika replied.

"Do you know the Marshall, Yoshika?" Mio asked.

"Well... she was my teacher... the one that trained me when I was still a Witch…" Yoshika explained.

"Heh... at that time, you were but an unpolished diamond…" Galland said as she reminisced.

"Now is not the time to look at the past... I'm here as a Neuroi representative... the three outside are waiting and I don't want to cause any extra stress to your soldiers." Yoshika said.

"Is that so... then… straight to the business?" Galland started. "I have seen strange behavior in the Karlsland Hive... they are... attacking erratically... what does this mean?" Galland asked.

"Is that so... the king's forces have never changed..." Yoshika mused.

"King?" Galland asked.

"Yes… We Neuroi are split in a civil war... The purple king and the red queen." Yoshika started to explain.

"What's the difference?" Galland asked further.

"The king is set on total domination of the universe, but our queen is set on co-existence." Yoshika answered.

"And you are with the queen..." Galland confirmed.

"Yes... you can identify us from our color... I am red so I am loyal to the queen." Yoshika replied.

"Then... the Karlsland Hive... what happened to it?" Galland asked.

"The king's forces infiltrated it and took it over... we could not retaliate at the moment... the situation is tense... battles may break out in the Gallian-Karlsland border." Yoshika answered.

"So what do you want from me?" Galland asked.

"As a leader of the joint forces, I want you to spread the hope of peace and the truth..." Yoshika said plainly.

"Peace... and truth..." Galland mused.

"I want all humans to know that we are not here for carnage or destruction." Yoshika said.

"I will try... let's hope that the others don't try anything…" Galland replied.

"Others... Maloney also said of the same thing... don't tell me... you're...?" Yoshika asked in shock.

"Yes... it's a shame, but we are in the same organization..." Galland said in shame. "But! We are of different goals…" She rebutted. "Our organization name is CAGE." Galland started explaining. "I am in what you could call the "Bright Side"... we strive for a better tomorrow. Maloney is in what you could call the "Dark Side"... it's not actually split into two, but... some people just want to fulfill their desires, just like Trevor did…" She finished.

"What position is yours, Adolf-san?" Yoshika asked.

"4th… no, its 3rd now" Galland replied.

"Who are the rest?" Yoshika asked.

"I can't tell you..." Galland said in disappointment.

"Classified information, huh…? I understand..." Yoshika said, understanding the meaning. "Then… who else knows about my identity?" She asked.

"As of now… including me, there are three..." Galland answered.

"The two above you?" Yoshika asked.

"Yes." Galland confirmed. "About that peace and truth... I can do that but... what are you going to do next?"

"Ah! That's right! I want to meet Queen Elizabeth the 3rd." Yoshika answered.

"WHAT!?" The Witches (except Minna) that were silent suddenly shouted.

Galland to can only stand in shock at what Yoshika said.

"Wha... Why do you want to do that?" Galland asked.

"We seek peace! So I need to act as a diplomat and seek the various leaders of the world." Yoshika begin explaining. "The Queen of Britannia is my first target since it's nearby. The next would be the Emperor of Karlsland... I hope you can help me with that..."

"I can, but…" Galland started.

"What?" Yoshika asked confused.

"What if you do not succeed?" Galland asked.

"Hope that I do." Yoshika replied simply.

"Right… then… I can set everything by afternoon..." Galland said.

"Oh? That's quite fast!" Yoshika said in admiration.

"Ara? I can't let my former student beat me, right?" Galland teased.

"Well how about the Witches, General?" Minna asked.

"I guess you all would just stand by for a while." Galland said as she headed to her office.

"I'll be waiting outside, then" Yoshika said as she floated out while putting on her mask. "Oh! And my Neuroi name is 'Xonia'. Please remember that." Yoshika said before Galland stepped into her office.

* * *

**"So how was it?"** Axion asked.

**"It went better than I expected... luckily my former teacher is a General... she is trustworthy…"** Yoshika replied.

**"Is that so?"** Ixia asked.

**"Ahahahaha… those soldiers are tense all the time." **Xalia said as he turned around and around at the soldiers surrounding them.

Every time he looked at a group of soldiers, those soldiers tensed in fear.

**"Stop it!" **Yoshika scolded. **"Just don't move... we might wait for quite some time after all."**

* * *

**"I'm Booooorrreeedd~!" **Xalia whined after an hour.

**"Be patient!" **Ixia said losing his patience with Xalia.

**"Then return to base and report to me anything strange!" **Yoshika ordered.

**"Well... better than staying here, I guess…" **Xalia said as he flew away, shocking the soldiers.

**"Are you all right, Axion? You seem... bored as well..." **Yoshika asked.

**"Ah! No! No! It's nothing! I can hold it..." **Axion replied.

**"If you're bored, you can go with Xalia, you know..." **Yoshika suggested.

**"It's kind of you to think about me, Yoshika..."** Axion said.

**"Ehe~ you called me by my name..." **Yoshika replied, smiling.

**"Ah... right..." **Axion said shyly.

**"It seems I am forgotten here... alone…" **Ixia said.

**"Ah! I didn't forget you... it's just I thought you weren't bored!" **Yoshika tried to make an excuse for herself.

**"It doesn't matter... it's fine if you trust me like that." **Ixia said.

**"Ahahaha... playing the cool character as always." **Yoshika stated.

**"I'm always cool." **Ixia replied.

The three spent their time chatting for quite a while.

Not long, Xalia returned with nothing to report, and jealous of being forgotten by her, also joined the conversation.

The four did this while waiting for time to move.

* * *

Not long, the sun is high in the sky. The soldiers are sweating in heat. Of course, they do not stand there all the time. Yoshika noticed that they have a grouping system. After some time, each group has their own resting time.

Galland suddenly walked out of the main building.

The tired soldiers then tensed even more as they shouted "General!" while saluting.

"At ease!" Galland said, and the turned to face Yoshika. "Oi! Xonia! I finished you request! You are allowed audience with the Queen tomorrow! The Queen's personal Witches will escort you there!"

"How about the Strike Witches? Didn't I request for them to follow?" Yoshika asked.

"They could but not as your escort! They will be just observers!" Galland replied.

"Good enough... how about the Karlsland Emperor?" Yoshika asked.

"I also have received permission. I myself will escort you there to meet him." Galland answered.

"Is that so... then I shall take my leave..." Yoshika said as she looked at the three at her back. **"Listen to that! We will meet the Queen tomorrow... this is the beginning."** She said to the three. **"Return to Base!" **Yoshika ordered. **"Witches~ you too~"** She said into the communication channel.

The Witches went to the hangar to put on the Strikers in a hurry and followed Yoshika back to the base.

* * *

At the base, Ichiro was waiting for them to return.

_'How much longer?'_ he thought to himself. Soon some shape can be seen in the horizon. _'Ah! There they are!'_

"Da~~~d!" Yoshika shouted.

"Yoshika~~!" Ichiro replied.

Yoshika and the Witches landed at the beach.

Yoshika dematerialized her Neuroi armor and features before landing on the ground.

The Witches, by Minna's orders, went to put their Strikers back at the hangar.

"How did it go?" Ichiro asked.

"Much better than I expected." Yoshika said, smiling. "Adolf-san will take care of the joint army… if it's her, then everything will be fine..."

"You always admired her, didn't you Yoshika…?" Ichiro asked.

"Well... I used to... now were equals..." Yoshika answered.

"It's starting to get dark… why don't you see your mother and take a bath before eating dinner?" Ichiro suggested to his daughter.

"Sure~" Yoshika ran in the direction of the house beaming.

Then the three Neuroi floated above Ichiro.

Mio walked towards Ichiro.

"Hmm? What is it Mio?" Ichiro asked.

"Well... these three wanted to speak to you and asked me to translate." Mio said as she activated her magic.

"Is that so... what is it you want to speak with me?" Ichiro asked in the direction to the three.

**"We just want to thank you." **Axion said.

Ichiro was surprised at the statement.

"Thank me? I want to thank you for taking care of her…" Ichiro replied.

**"She never seemed so happy before..."** Axion continued.

"If it's that, thank the Witches for accepting her and keeping her company." Ichiro said.

**"We will do that, too." **Axion said.

"I guess you're Axion... the one Yoshika calls her brother." Ichiro said.

**"I guess she does call us her brothers." **Axion said shyly as his hull moved downwards a bit.

"Is that all?" Ichiro asked.

**"Well… she is a bit lonely, you know..." **Xalia said.

**"She needs someone there to be for her." **Ixia said.

**"We couldn't be beside her all the time since she is human." **Axion said.

"Human?" Ichiro asked.

"Yoshika is part Neuroi, right? Doesn't that mean she is both?" Mio asked.

**"She is part Neuroi... she does have a Core, but... she is not fully merged with it." **Axion said.

The two humans were confused.

**"I mean… she can return 'human' once more." **Axion explained.

**"**Oh!" Ichiro and Mio said at the same time, shocked.

**"We might be here for quite a while so nice to meet you, Professor Miyafuji." **Axion said. **"Tomorrow will be the beginning she made for humanity and Neuroi alike..."**

"Hope that that tomorrow is a better tomorrow." Ichiro said.

**"Oh right!" **Xalia suddenly exclaimed shocking Mio. **"Our Queen will make an audience with you~, trusted friends of Yoshika!"**

Ichiro and Mio were shocked; Yoshika didn't tell them anything about this.

"Does Yoshika know?" Mio asked.

**"She is the one of the few allowed audience with the Queen."** Ixia explained. **"She is also the fourth that have their own Queen-line... a communication channel the Queen gives to her most trusted."**

"Is that so?" Ichiro asked.

**"This is all we want to say. See you tomorrow."** Axion said.

With that said, the three flew away at high speed towards the Gallian Hive.

"Ahhh... It's been hectic for quite a while..." Mio commented on the situation.

"But it's fun, right?" Ichiro asked.

"Heh... quite..." Mio replied.

* * *

**A/N: This fic is a collaboration fic between me and P4Nd0RaS, so please thank him too!**


	9. Chapter 9

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Chapter 9: The Skies of Britannia**

* * *

"Hooooaahmm..." Yoshika yawned as she woke up.

She looked out of the window and it is but dark.

_'Maybe I should continue training those magic skills I have not mastered...'_ She thought to herself.

She exited her room and the house quietly and went in the direction of the forest.

On a plain spot surrounded by trees, she sat in a meditating position.

'_Core running on optimum output.'_

'_Magic is stable.'_

_'Let's see...'_ she thought as she focused around her.

She sent faint magic waves around her. She tried to sense everything in the biggest radius possible.

This is actually her first attempt in trying to imitate the magic radar only a few Witches are born with. She tried to copy it but to no avail. She set her magic too faintly to get a clear reading.

Her focus is unstable... forcing herself wouldn't make it work.

_'So... it must be inherited after all.'_ She thought while resting. _'Then I will just train what I can. As usual... focus...'_ She thought as she focused to her surroundings.

This time... she focused on certain parts.

_'Air...'_ she thought as the winds dance.

_'Water...'_ she thought as water flowed.

_'Fire...'_ she thought as flames burst to life.

_'Earth...'_ she thought as rocks around her lifted.

_'Lightning...'_ she thought as electricity crackled to life.

_'Light...'_ she thought as light suddenly shined in the dark forest.

_'Darkness...'_ she thought as the brightness died down.

_'That's the basics... now... the hard part.'_ Yoshika thought to herself.

_'Fuse...' _she focused.

The elements around here moved and collided to each other.

Fire and Water made steam.

Water and Wind made ice.

Wind and Earth made sharp knives.

Earth and Fire made molten lava.

Lightning, Light and Darkness complimented the other.

She released her focus and all fell down from its hovering state.

_'Magic sure is deep... it can be used for almost anything...'_ She thought as she admired the laws of magic. _'Now... pure power...'_ she thought to herself.

She erected her plasma barrier to full power and materialized it fully, covering her completely.

She activated her magic to maximum lightning the dark space with light of magic.

She tried to keep that state for a long time.

She focused… and focused… and focused…

_Don! Don! Don!_

She heard someone hit on her shield...

Losing her concentration, her magic falls silent.

She dematerialized her shield and asked, "Who's there?"

She found Mio outside.

"Sakamoto-san?" Yoshika asked.

"Yoshika, what are you doing? It's still a little bit more till sunrise." She asked.

"Training." Yoshika replied.

"Oho? Training... what are you training?" Mio asked, interested.

"Well... magic control." Yoshika answered.

"Control?" Mio asked.

"My Neuroi Core and my own magic function differently from each other, so I need to increase my control over them so that they don't go off." Yoshika explained.

"Ahahahaha!" Mio laughed as she doesn't understand. "If we work hard we can do anything! There's nothing a Witch can't do, after all!" She shouted.

"Ahaha..." Miyafuji laughed a little at the remark.

Then they went in the direction of the beach since Mio want to do her daily morning training and Yoshika just wanted to see.

When they arrived, they noticed two figures flying in their direction.

"Sanya-san~ Eila-san~" Miyafuji exclaimed as she waved.

"Ah..." Sanya said and waved back shyly.

"Ara... Yoshika and Major Sakamoto." Eila said quite shocked.

"What are you doing?" Yoshika asked.

"Finished the night patrol... so sleepy..." Eila replied.

"Oh, right... I forgot..." Yoshika said as she remembered their usual duties.

"Well, see ya Yoshika." Eila said as she headed to the hangar.

"See you..." Sanya said shyly as she too headed to the hangar.

"Night patrol..." Yoshika thought out loud.

"Want to try?" Mio asked.

"Huh?" Yoshika asked shocked.

"Want to go on a patrol with them?" Mio asked.

"But..." Yoshika said with reluctance.

"Don't worry! You can do it after we went back from Britannia." Mio replied.

"But..." Yoshika said, still reluctant.

"Sei!" Mio shouts as she swings her bokken.

Miyafuji thought that she couldn't do anything about it and left towards the cafeteria.

* * *

As she nears the cafeteria she smelled a sweet smell.

When she enters the cafeteria she was surprised at finding her mother at the kitchen... not Lynette...

"Mom?" Yoshika asked.

"Ara... Yoshika." Sayaka said as she is stirring a broth.

"What are you cooking?" Yoshika asked.

"It's been quite a while, right, since you've eaten any Fuso food?" Sayaka asked.

"Right..." Yoshika answered.

"So Ichiro asked me to cook to for you. I even asked Mio for permission." Sayaka said. "I am making tempura, yakitori, soba and miso soup. I even have your favorite; natto!"

'Natto...' Yoshika thought as she started drooling.

"Wait a little bit more okay~ you will need the energy!" Sayaka said.

"Ah... yes." Yoshika said, stunned.

* * *

After the best breakfast she had in a long time, Yoshika assembled the Witches and so they could head to London.

The Witches waited in the airspace as Yoshika went to get the three to join them.

The three however know better about her and waited her halfway from the Hive to the base.

After regrouping ant putting on her mask Yoshika and the witches flew towards London.

They will be going to London en route Glasgow, Carlisle, and Liverpool.

The Queen's Witches will be waiting around Edinburg.

**"So slooooooow!"** Xalia shouted in boredom.

**"Xalia!"** Axion replied.

"It's no matter" Yoshika said, expecting the result.

Ixia is silent all the time.

"What speed do you fly at usually?" Shirley asked.

"Speed? Want to know?" Yoshika asked back.

"YES! I WANT TO KNOW!" Shirley replied with anticipation.

"Heh... Axion!" Yoshika called him.

**"Yes? Why did you call me?"** Axion asked with confusion.

"Well..." Yoshika said as she looked at Shirley.

"I want to know how fast you can go!" Shirley said quickly.

**"Well... using human speed calculations... around Mach 2, I guess."** Axion replied

This speed shocked all the Witches present.

"But... we've never seen a Neuroi flying that fast before…" Ursula said.

**"It's because we need processing power to scan the atmosphere."** Axion replied.

The witches were confused at the statement.

**"We aren't here to attack. We want co-existence, so we want to find out about the land, air, composition, life, lifestyle and more."** Axion tried to explain.

"So?" Shirley asked even more confused.

**"We use most of our processing power to get data."** Ixia suddenly said.

"Aaaahhhh..." The Witches all said together, starting to understand.

**"Using beams is the bare limit while scanning."** Ixia said.

**"The data will be in our consciousness before we reach the Hive, so..."** Axion said.

"We have always hindered you work." Minna said.

**"Right."** Axion replied.

"How about Yoshika?" Shirley asked as she thought she couldn't hear.

"I can hear that you know..." Yoshika said as she suddenly looked back.

"I... can maybe fly around Mach 1..." Yoshika said reluctantly.

**"While sleeping."** Xalia teased.

**"Xalia!"** Axion said as he bumped his back.

"Mach 1 or more?" Shirley asked, confused.

"All right, all right! My average speed is Mach 5!" Yoshika exclaimed, giving up.

This shocked the Witches present... Yoshika could fly at Mach speed and faster than a Neuroi.

"But… how?" Shirley asked, dumbfounded.

"Magic." Yoshika said as if it's obvious. She then tensed up. "Someone is looking at us." Yoshika suddenly said.

"I can hear some people there." Sanya said.

The Witches suddenly tensed.

"Are these the Glorious Witches?" Yoshika asked.

Bzzz… bzzz... there are sounds in the intercom.

"I am Squadron Leader Dolores Bader… _bzzz_… we are here to escort the Neuroi." The voice who identified herself as Dolores Bader said.

The group flew closer.

"We are the Majesty the Queen's Witches." She said. "By direct order of our queen we are to escort the diplomat to the palace." She said as she looked at the Neuroi with distaste.

"Is that so… this is my escort?" Yoshika said shocking the new Witches.

They were confused at the humanoid Neuroi... they doubted that it is a Neuroi for a moment.

**"You three, return to base." **Yoshika screeched at the three.

This shocked the Glorious Witches again... and now they believed that this being is a Neuroi.

The three complied and left at supersonic speed.

_'So fast... they're not lying after all... can I... ride on top of their backs sometime?'_ Shirley thought for a moment.

"Aren't we going?" Yoshika asked.

"I don't want this to end before the night falls..." Yoshika said.

"Chi." Some of the Glorious Witches wore angry and loathsome faces.

They're pissed... seriously pissed.

They all flew towards London silently since then.

Tension is in the air. The Strike Witches do not dare to make conversation.

* * *

After a few hours, they stopped at Liverpool for rest.

The sun is high. They have flown for 4 to 5 hours non-stop.

So they will be resting for a while and have lunch.

Yoshika however just stayed afloat, watching the perimeter.

Suddenly, she intercepted a comm. channel to the Queen's Witches.

"_Bzzz_... _bzzz_… squad _bzzz_... can you hear… _bzzzt_... e _bzzt_... purple Neuroi... heading to London!" The communication officer said. "Heading th... _bzzzt_ gh Norwich _bzzt_... origin is Karlsland Hive."

"So, the Karlsland Hive have started moving against me" Yoshika said as Lynette ran towards her in a panic.

"Yoshika-chan~!" Lynne shouted.

"Lynne-chan? What's wrong?" Yoshika asked, surprised.

"Norwich! It's my hometown... some of my brothers and sisters are still there." Lynne exclaimed.

"Don't worry... evacuation is going on." Yoshika said.

"But... but..." Lynne continued panicking.

"Is that so... then we will take care of it ourselves." Yoshika said.

"But I can't! Without Commander Minna's order, I can't fly!" Lynne exclaimed.

_"Yoshika! Do you hear me?"_ Minna asked over the comm. line.

"Speak of the devil... yes, Minna-san?" Yoshika asked.

_"There's a Neuroi heading to London from Karlsland! The escorts will be intercepting them! The Strike Witches will act as support! Sergeant Bishop! You are a sniper, so you are the one that will fly!"_ Minna ordered.

"Do you hear that?" Yoshika asked.

"Eh, hear what?" Lynne asked.

"You have just been allowed to fly." Yoshika said.

* * *

"Why me alone!?" Lynne wailed while flying towards the Queen's Witches who flew first.

Soon, she can see the Neuroi and the Witches battling on the ocean sky.

She unlocked her safety and aimed. _'Aim and shoot...'_ Lynne thought as she tried to calm herself down. She tried to aim at the Neuroi using the reticule. _'Aim and shoot…'_ she continued to try to aim at the Neuroi. But the Neuroi is too fast. _'How do I shoot at something that fast?!'_ she thought, still panicking.

The Neuroi suddenly noticed the unmoving figure and shot a beam at it. Lynne could barely dodge the shot and flew away.

The Neuroi however shot another beam.

Not evading fully, one of her Strikers are hit. Though not so badly, it will be unable to be stable while firing.

_'I can't do it after all…'_ she thought to herself.

"Don't give up!" Yoshika said from behind, shocking her. "Here; I'll help!" Yoshika said as she raised Lynne on her back. "Its stable now, right?" Yoshika asked to her.

"Un! But... I can't aim at something that fast…" Lynne said with disappointment.

"Calm down... that Neuroi is a Runner-class... a scout type..." Yoshika explained. "Its armor is quite weak… and don't you see a flying pattern there?" Yoshika asked.

"Eh?" Lynne thought out loud.

"Try looking at it slowly..." Yoshika told her.

Lynette calmed herself down and looked at the battle again.

The Neuroi is fast. It evaded most of the bullets that the Queen's Witches were firing. Then she noticed that it flew in an asymmetrical way.

_'Is that?'_ Lynne thought.

"That's it... you almost got it." Yoshika said. "Now just pull the trigger."

"Yes!" Lynne said as she pulled the trigger.

With a deafening sound the anti-armor bullet pierced through the back of the Neuroi. It screeched in pain and, because of the severe damage, slowed down greatly.

The Witches now could shoot at it.

The Neuroi that slowed down no took on heavy barrages of bullets from them.

"Don't let them take the credit!" Yoshika exclaimed. She activated her eyes and looked for the Core. She found it after a few moments of searching. "The Core is in its head... can you do it?" Yoshika asked her.

"Yes!" Lynne said as she aimed.

But the Neuroi fired several beams at Lynne in retaliation.

For a moment, Lynne started panicking again.

Yoshika just raised her shoulders and her wings flew outwards and stopped at a position. "Barrier." She said as dark opaque film spread from the wings surrounding them with a film of protection.

The beam just bent off the shield without any resistance.

Yoshika then turned off the shield as Lynne started firing.

The first shot destroyed the head making the Core visible. The second shot caused its body to bend greatly. The last shot destroyed the Core completely.

"Ah... I did it... I did it, Yoshika-chan~!" She shouted and tried to hug Yoshika.

To her surprise, Yoshika is not there.

_'Where is she?'_ Lynne thought, confused.

"Good work, Lynette!" Mio shouted over the comm.

"Not bad~" Erica said.

Trude only said "Humph!"

Lynne flew back towards them in Liverpool with the Glorious Witches at her back.

"That was some fine shooting!" one of them said.

"Splendid!" Another one exclaimed.

"Ahahaha…" Lynne laughed in embarrassment.

She was happy... She could do something...

_'Thank you, Yoshika-chan.'_ Lynne thought to herself.

* * *

Yoshika activated her P-Stealth, which is state-of-the-art optical camouflage and flew away at high speed before Lynette noticed. She returned to where the others were waiting. She deactivated her decoy and looked at the sky, waiting for her friend to come back.

When the fighting Witches landed, Yoshika walked to where the Witches are and asked, "When are we going to go?"

"We are leaving now!" The squad leader replied in irritation.

And so, the group flew towards London.

* * *

**A/N: This fic is a collaboration fic between me and P4Nd0RaS, so please thank him too!**


	10. Chapter 10

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the OC's. I own all the OC's.**

**Chapter 10: Long Live the Queen!**

* * *

They flew for some time over the skies of Britannia. It's autumn, but it's still quite warm.

They flew towards London in silence... they were tense... nobody dares to say a word.

Why? It's simple...

Discrimination.

Humans have always thought that Neuroi are monsters... destroyers... attackers...

Never have we communicated. The loss of the battles... beloved ones... scars that do not heal...

_'But I will change everything.'_ Yoshika thought as she stars to see the city.

"Our Queen will be waiting at Buckingham Palace." Bader said coldly.

"Lead the way." Yoshika answered.

They flew above numerous houses.

* * *

They kept flying until they reached the palace.

Yoshika stayed afloat while looking around, while the Glorious Witches landed on the grass field, with the Strike Witches following suit.

So Miyafuji too landed on the ground as well.

"I'm sorry for us to meet this way." A voice said from inside of the balcony.

The Strike Witches and Yoshika were surprised and looked up.

"Are you Queen Elizabeth?" Yoshika asked.

The woman stepped out.

She wore a dress as if it suits her. The elegance yet strict look of the dress fitted her kind yet stern appearance.

'_As expected of a queen... some charisma she has…'_ Yoshika thought to herself.

To everyone's surprise, Yoshika kneeled.

"What are you doing?" Eliza asked (I'm shorting her name Elizabeth to Eliza~).

"This is the proper way to greet human royalty... right? Or is my data mistaken?" Yoshika asked, pretending to not know.

"It is kind of you to show me an etiquette... you may rise." Eliza said.

Yoshika raised herself up and looked at the queen.

"What is it that you propose to us humans? No... To Britannia?" Eliza asked.

"I offer peace." Yoshika said simply. Straight and to the point.

The queen was shocked for a moment.

"We do not want conflict... It is for our benefits that we stop this war... we do not have time to battle humans." Yoshika said.

"What do you mean?" Eliz asked.

"We Neuroi under the Red Queen Xeila are here for co-existence... we do not attack unless for self-defense."

"Red? Does this have to do with change in color of the Neuroi from Karlsland?" Eliza asked.

"As expected of a queen... Yes... I am a commander of the Red Queen's forces." Yoshika said with pride. "However, the other faction, the Purple King Exos' faction, does not seek co-existence…" She started. "They seek complete domination of the universe." She explained.

"Ho… How is that possible?" The Glorious Witches started to speak among themselves about this new information.

"It is possible." Yoshika said at the question.

"So what do you want from Britannia?" Eliza asked.

"At the very least, a truce." Yoshika said.

"That is easy." Eliza replied.

"To not be involved with our battle in the Gallian-Karlsland airspace against Exos' forces." Yoshika continued.

"That I can arrange." Eliza said.

"Lastly, I want these "Strike Witches" to help me and observe." Yoshika finished.

"What do you mean by observe?" Eliza asked.

"They shall see what we are truly here for... our purpose on Earth... everything." Yoshika explained.

"It seems acceptable".

Yoshika floated toward the balcony.

She held out her hand towards the queen.

For a moment the situation is tense. The Glorious Witches were ready to fire at Yoshika

"What is this?" Eliza asked.

"A handshake... it's a gesture of acceptance, right? Or is my data incorrect…?" Yoshika said, pretending that she doesn't know.

The two shook hands.

The Queen winced at the cold temperature of Yoshika's Neuroified hands.

"I guess this is it." Yoshika said.

"Yes… I suppose we are finished here."

"What will you say to your citizens?"

"We... have peace... but of course we shall be alert of any threats... If you become a threat to us..." The queen let the sentence hang in the air.

Sensing the silent threat, Yoshika chuckled to herself.

"I hope we meet again... in better circumstances…" Yoshika replied.

**"I will pretend to fly away back to the Hive. I will see you in a bit." **Yoshika screeched as she looked back. **"Show me around London, will you?"** She asked the Strike Witches as she flew away at high speed.

The Queen's Witches slumped after being tense the whole time.

Exhausted mentally and physically, they requested for rest from the queen.

With the Queen's consent they went to take rest for the whole day.

The Strike Witches however, went to London for some free time.

* * *

"How will Yoshika-chan find us?" Lynne asked.

"By tracing your magic signatures." Yoshika said, surprising all but Sanya and Eila who sensed her approach.

"How did you do that?" Ursula asked in fascination. She and the other Strike Witches that Yoshika was not in her Neuroi armor, and was wearing her old sailor uniform with a swimsuit underneath. In other words, she looks perfectly human again.

"Basic stealth technique... nothing to worry about~" Yoshika answered. "Now, show me around London, will you please?" Yoshika asked to Lynne.

"Well... I'm not so sure... I've never went around London before" Lynne said doubtingly.

"Let's just walk around, then." Yoshika replied.

As she finished saying that, Luchinni and Shirley have disappeared somewhere.

Trude and Erica went to see the shops.

Minna and Mio, followed by Perrine, went for some desserts.

Lynne, Ursula and Yoshika went and walked around the streets.

They passed through some shops and looked at few things. They also saw a few antique stores.

_'Ursula sure is interested in strange things.'_ Yoshika thought as Ursula examined a strange figurine.

The walked through the city some more, seeing the hustle and bustle of the townsfolk.

As they walk pass the bread shop a sweet aroma can be smelled. Yoshika's stomach growled a moment later.

Shyly, she denied the chance to eat, but in the end they bought a few loaves of bread for her to eat.

As Yoshika ate the bread, they walked some more.

However, they suddenly heard a radio announcement as they pass a store. They could hear the Queen's voice. _"They offer us peace! As Queen, I have accepted this as a truce. There may be some disagreement to this choice for some. But for the future of Britannia, we need to rebuild! We need to stand up once more!"_

Cheers resounded as the Queen proclaimed.

_'What a Queen...'_ Yoshika thought to herself sarcastically.

Throughout London, the people cheered "Long live the Queen!"

* * *

**A/N: This fic is a collaboration fic between me and P4Nd0RaS, so please thank him too!**


	11. Chapter 11

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Chapter 11: How She Comes to Be... (Flashback Arc Part 1)**

* * *

The night after the alliance, the Witches were resting.

However, Sanya still must go on night patrol.

Since most of them are tired, Eila is worried so she followed.

Yoshika, with Major Mio's and Commander Minna's consent, accompanied them.

However, Yoshika wasn't wearing her Neuroi Striker Unit or her Neuroi armor.

"I'm fine~ I can fly like this." She said as she floats in the air.

The Witches were shocked for a while since she can fly by herself.

So they flew over the night sky.

Yoshika was staring at the sky, the stars and especially the moon.

"Not the first time?" Eila asked.

"Eh?" Yoshika answered; half confused, half surprised.

"She means... is this not your first time... night patrol..." Sanya said shyly.

"Oh… well, no... I frequently fly at night." Yoshika said.

"Why?" Eila asked.

"Ummm... I just do… I guess..." Yoshika answered vaguely.

They flew through the silent sky.

Nothing could be heard even through Sanya's Magic Antenna.

Yoshika continues to stare at the moon.

Sanya and Eila looked at each other in confusion at the unexpected behavior of Yoshika.

"Night sky is beautiful isn't it?" Sanya asked shyly.

"Ah… yes... it's beautiful..." Yoshika said as she wandered off again.

This time, both Eila and Sanya were concerned.

"What's with the moon?" Eila asked.

"Eh?" Yoshika said in surprise.

"You... have been staring... for quite a while..." Sanya said.

"Oh..." Yoshika said.

She stayed silent for a while... thinking...

_'Should I say it?'_ She thought for a moment. _'Ah... not now...'_ she finalizes.

"Not now... maybe some other time... if the time is right..." Yoshika said.

Eila and Sanya looked at each other and nodded. _'Something is strange... let's tell the others about this, too...'_ They thought at the same time.

"Hey..." Yoshika suddenly said.

Both Witches are surprised for a moment.

"Do you like the night sky?" Yoshika asked.

"Why do you ask?" Eila said.

"Just asking." She replied.

"Well... I do..." Sanya answered.

"Is that so..." Yoshika said but she suddenly notices something. "Chi... We've got company." She suddenly said as she materialized her armor and Strikers.

"Wha?" Eila said surprised.

"..." Sanya said nothing as she concentrated.

"10 o'clock low... distance: 50 miles… and it's an Infiltrator-type." Yoshika explained.

"I can't hear anything..." Sanya said in confusion.

"Are you sure Yoshika?" Eila asked.

"I'm sure... infiltrators are specially built to be hidden... they can avoid radar and sonar..." Yoshika explained. "Luckily, you can sometimes hear a faint humm in the air."

Sanya then heard a humm... a vibration of power but she couldn't feel a target.

"Don't worry; I'll activate an EMP area." Yoshika said calmly.

"EMP?" Eila asked.

"It deactivates all electromagnetic capabilities." Yoshika explained.

"What do you mean?" Eila asked still confused.

"When I use it you will understand." Yoshika said as her wings flew.

The wings then split from 8 to 16 and then to 32 and even further until there were a total of 4096 pieces.

The sky looks like filled with black petals.

They scattered in all directions so that vision is not obstructed and electricity crackled.

Electromagnetic energy started resonating through the area like waves.

The incoming Neuroi suddenly panicked at its detection.

"I can feel it..." Sanya said suddenly.

"Where!?" Eila asked straight away.

"It's hidden in the clouds." She replied. "Yoshika... how about you?" Sanya asked

"Sorry... but I can't move... I'm focusing right now..." She said as she strained her mind to focus.

"Let's go, Eila..." Sanya said.

"Right." Eila answered.

Both flew towards the clouds.

Sanya fired missiles towards the group of clouds.

Every time a missile exploded, a crater was formed in the clouds.

Sanya then stood by since she couldn't just randomly fire.

After a few barrages, Sanya stopped.

"Is it gone like last time?" Eila asked.

"No… it's there..." Sanya answered.

"Then..." Eila wanted to ask.

"It's fast..." She simply said.

On the other side, Yoshika continued to maintain the electromagnetic disturbance.

_'I can maintain this and even put up a barrier... but I don't think they can finish this one by themselves...'_ Yoshika thought. _'Can't help it... I'll just clear the clouds.'_ she thought as she deactivated her skill.

The pieces merged back to wings again and this time those wings attached to one another.

They made a fan shape.

Sanya was surprised with the sudden disappearance of the target in her radar.

Eila confused at what going on wanted to ask her.

But both are even more surprised as Yoshika shouted "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

The two Witches flew away as Yoshika threw the fan at the clouds.

She focused as winds blow and rage.

A tornado formed from the fan and headed towards the clouds.

With the strong winds, the clouds were dispersed.

After the winds died down, a shape can be seen in the sky.

The Neuroi, shocked at the sudden incoming projectile, stopped moving. And with the additional shock from losing its hiding place it shouted.

**"I SURRENDER! I do not want to die!" **A male voice screeched.

**"Then deactivate your stealth." **Yoshika answered.

**"That voice… you! You-you-you're... the "Red Witch"... the "Lightning Goddess"... please spare me!"** It screeched.

The Witches were kind of confused at the name the Neuroi called Yoshika, and even more that the Neuroi surrendered.

_'We never knew they could surrender.'_ Eila thought.

'_Maybe... I could have killed some of them... even after they were begging._' Sanya thought at the horror she imagined.

**"What will you do if I spare you?" **Yoshika said coldly.

**"I'll be in your service! I will go to your side!"** He said.

**"We do not need those without a sense of loyalty." **Yoshika explained coldly.

**"I have information!" He** says trying to find excuses.

**"What is it?"** Yoshika asked.

**"A Super Hive is coming!"** He said.

**"That I also know… what about it?"** Yoshika said calmly.

**"It's a Battleship-class!"** It said.

**"It's a WHAT!? That bastard of a king sent that monstrosity towards Earth?!" **Yoshika exclaimed while slightly panicking.

The Witches were shocked when Yoshika called the incoming threat a "Monstrosity".

**"He also will be sending an Agent!" **It continued.

**"An Agent? Where from?" **Yoshika asked it to clarify.

**"From Vega!" **It said quickly.

**"Those Lycanthrophes... I thought they were a prideful race..." **Yoshika said reminiscing about her visit.

The Witches don't understand anything at all... Super Hive? Battleship-class? Vega? Lycans? Race?

**"Is that all you know?" **Yoshika asked.

**"Yes! That is all!" **He quickly said.

**"I will spare you... but you will be sent back to Trinity as a POW (Prisoner Of War)." **Yoshika said shortly after.

**"..." **He could only sound dejected.

**"Don't worry... you will be released after the war is over."** Yoshika said trying to convince him.

**"When will it be over...? … I'm tired of it... almost everyone sane is..." **He said tiredly.

**"A strange sight to see someone from the king's forces to think like this..." **Yoshika said.

**"Well... most of us were forced to obey... we are bound by service... you also have it right? A mark…" **He said.

Yoshika winced for a moment as she remembers the Mark she have been given by the queen.

The two Witches who noticed that wondered about this mark.

Yoshika then alerted the Hive about this prisoner.

She made sure that they would treat him nicely since it did not fight.

After the slight ordeal they continued the flight.

"Ne… Yoshika... what's this mark?" Sanya asked.

"Heh... maybe next time, okay?" Yoshika said, evading the question.

"I'm reporting everything I remember to Minna, you know." Eila said.

"If everybody asks me... then I will explain." Yoshika said.

After a few hours, they flew back to base since it would soon be dawn.

* * *

Sunlight could be seen in the horizon before they landed.

"Hooooaahmmmm" Eila yawned.

Sanya is already half asleep and is walking towards her room followed by Eila.

Yoshika, not yet feeling tired, went to the beach.

At the beach, Yoshika found Major Mio training with her bamboo sword.

"Why do you swing that sword?" Yoshika asked surprising the Major that was deep in concentration.

"Ah… Yoshika... don't scare me like that." Mio said, slightly shocked at Yoshika's sudden appearance.

"Sorry 'bout that..." Yoshika apologized. "Sakamoto-san... you don't use a sword... why train using one?" She asked again.

"Well... maybe I'll need one someday... I just don't have one yet." Mio replied.

"Is that so?" Yoshika said as she wondered.

"Do you want to train with me?" Mio asked.

"Ah... I'm quite tired..." Yoshika lied a little.

"Oh… night patrol… how was it?" Mio said as she remembered it.

"Not that bad... the night sky is beautiful..." Yoshika answered.

"How is the darkness?" Mio asked.

"I can see in darkness you know... infrared, night vision." Yoshika said.

"How could that be?" Mio said half shocked.

"Well... I learnt it after a lot of trial and error. Took me seventeen months to figure it out." Yoshika answered. "Well… I'll be gone for now..." Yoshika said as she started leaving.

"Ah... all right." Mio said before continuing her swings.

Yoshika headed to her home to meet her family for a while.

* * *

"Mom~ Dad~ I'm home!" Yoshika said.

"Yoshika!" Sayaka said, a little bit surprised.

"Yoshika..." Akimoto too called.

"Where's dad?" Yoshika asked.

"In the lab as usual." Sayaka said.

"Hungry?" Akimoto asked as she pointed at the dining table.

Yoshika now remembered... she did not eat for a day and her stomach growled.

With a shy smile, she accepted the kind gesture.

Akimoto cooked the stew as Sayaka cooked soup.

Fragrant smells soon flow around the room.

Food soon fills the table.

Sayaka made sure to make some extra, remembering the last "Episode" Yoshika had.

Yoshika asked to the two, "Did dad eat already?"

"He should be coming soon." Akimoto said.

Shortly, footsteps could be heard and Ichiro walked into the house.

"Ara! Yoshika! You're back!" Ichiro greeted her.

"I'm home, dad." Yoshika answered.

"So how did it go?" Ichiro asked.

"Well... the Queen accepted a truce and I got the Witches' help... officially." Yoshika said.

"So all is well then." Ichiro said cheerfully.

"For now that is..." Yoshika said as she remembered about the info she gained.

"Is there something.?" Ichiro asked.

"Nah... you'll know later" Yoshika said.

"Itadakimasu~!" she said her greeting before she started eating.

What a blissful morning in the upcoming chaos.

* * *

A few hours after the breakfast, Yoshika was unexpectedly called to the briefing room.

_'What's wrong?'_ she thought to herself.

When she went into the room, all of the Witches are there.

Suddenly Minna said, "Yoshika... We wish to know everything."

"About the incoming threat?" Yoshika asked.

"Not just that... about you as well." Mio said.

"I too want to hear what happened." Ichiro said behind her.

"So do I." Sayaka too said.

The Witches all nodded partially curious partially concerned.

"Is that so... then... where should I begin..." Yoshika said. "You all know right? What Maloney did?" She asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Then... I should tell you what happened after the Dover mission." She said.

She explained what happened to her and how she got her Core.

Her torso parted like leaves to show a Core inside the flesh.

Everyone was quite shocked at the sight.

Though shocked, they were surprised at the Core.

It's different from a normal Neuroi's Core... her Core is a golden color as it glowed and hummed with power.

She said she'll explain it while she speaks of her story.

Yoshika raised her hand and formed a screen in front of her so that everyone present can see what is happening as she tells her story. She also made sure that everything is translated in the human language.

So she told how those three took her in their care.

They helped her get used to flight maneuvers and trained her in the use of beams and Neuroi energy as she calls it.

"Well then... it's that day after I become a part of the Gallian invasion forces with those three that you know..." Yoshika began as she materialized a screen so that all those that were present can see what she was talking about.

* * *

_Flashback_

_That was a year after Yoshika learned more about the Neuroi._

_She learnt of the various races in the universe._

_She tried learning the Neuroi language but she's not that good at it yet._

_The best she can do is a few sentences, which is enough to communicate._

_She has trained quite a lot and was promoted to a basic regular rather than a technician or reserves._

_Those three at that time were Squad leaders._

_We were invading Gallia to find out more about the European flora and fauna but we met with heavy resistance._

_My mission is to lead the detached forces to obstruct the supply of the arms and reinforcements._

_I plan to just scare them off._

_At that time..._

_**"Yoshika, are you sure?"**__ Axion asked._

_"Yes..." Yoshika said as she readies her Neuroi Strikers and armor (She doesn't have the wings or most of her abilities yet. This is 3 years back)._

_**"Someone has to do what one must do."**__ Ixia said._

_**"You will fight your own people you know~"**__ Xalia said concerned._

_"It doesn't matter... it's not our aim to kill, anyway." Yoshika said._

_**"It's true, but..."**__ Axion tried to argue._

_"Brother... thanks... but..." Yoshika said stopping Axion._

_**"All right..."**__ Axion finally agreed._

_**"Finished arguing?"**__ Tarra asked. __**"You've got a mission to do."**_

_"I understand... I will go now." Yoshika said._

_**"Good luck in battle."**__ Ixia said calmly._

_**"Good luck!"**__ Xalia said cheerfully._

_Leaving the main room, she left towards the 4__th__ Pen where the group she would lead is._

_She was kind of shocked to see some familiar figures._

_Most of the detached forces were her friends when she is just reserves._

'... If this is a suicide mission... I will not allow it.' _She thought as she looked at the situation_

_**"Ara~ Yoshika! You're the leader?"**__ Petra, one of the eight, said in surprise._

_"It seems so." Yoshika replied._

_**"What are we going to do?"**__ Faust, another trainee asked._

_**"I heard were going on a covert mission."**__ Macht said._

_The other four normal soldiers just stayed silent and waited for orders._

_From the data interface, Yoshika identifies them as Tyr, Gate, Burns and Weis._

_3 of them were regulars, while Tyr is a veteran; probably there to keep watch._

_**"What are your orders?"**__ Lum asked._

_"Prepare for stealth..." Yoshika replied. "We will hit and run." She said smiling._

_The Neuroi then equipped stealth equipment similar to that of the Infiltrator-types._

_High speed, optical camouflage and anti-radar._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"You can evade our radar?" Ursula asked.

"Why yes... I have been watching this base for quite some time since Minna came here." Yoshika said.

"Why do we do not detect it?" Minna asked.

"I guess supremacy in technology... well..." Yoshika said as she continued.

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_Our group flew towards the middle of Gallia undetected._

_We flew over the battlefront without any resistance._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"If you have stealth, why did you take over Gallia?" Perrine asked confused.

"While were shrouded from detection, we will be unable to focus on scanning." Yoshika answered. "And rather than scanning while battling, we prefer to just kick everyone out of the area. Now we are 38% complete with European sectors."

"38%!? That's it?!" Ursula said.

"Of course... due to much 'interference', our scanners are having a tough time and mostly did not even return."

The Witches winced when Yoshika mentioned 'interference'.

"That's for another time... Let me finish my story first... Where was I? Oh, right... we flew over Gallia undetected..." She said as she continued.

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_We flew towards the outskirts hoping to meet the caravan out of town._

_We do not want to destroy cities, nor do we want them to use them as cover, forcing us to destroy the city._

_So we tried to find it while it's in the open plains._

_"Everyone... Spread out" Yoshika ordered._

_**"Roger."**__ The group replied as they split into 8 directions._

_Yoshika floated still in the middle watching the others._

_As of now they are still in stealth so they will not be seen._

_But something nags in Yoshika's mind._

* * *

_After a while…_

'Something's wrong...' _She thought._

_All 8 Neuroi did not report the existence of the supplies they are told to destroy._

_"Tarra... can you hear me?" Yoshika said as she connected to the communication line._

_**"Loud and clear... what is it?"**__ Tarra said over the line._

_"We couldn't find the supplies." Yoshika reported._

_**"Is that so… let me check the data."**__ Tarra said as she checked the database for new data._

_"How is it?" Yoshika asked._

_**"It's not on land…"**__ Tarra said._

_"Eh!?" Yoshika said surprised._

_**"It's underwater."**__ Tarra said._

_"A submarine?" Yoshika asked._

_**"Yes... guarded by a battleship and a few frigates. There may be the presence of Witches, so proceed with caution."**__ Tarra informed._

_"Copy that." Yoshika replied. __**"All of you! Our target is changed! Head to the English Channel." **__Yoshika ordered the 8 Neuroi._

'It's the nearest water body that has enough space for a fleet.' _Yoshika thought._ 'I hope nothing goes wrong…' _she thought once more before flying towards Britannia._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"The English Channel?" Lynne asked suddenly surprised.

"Ah... right... I saw your sister Lynne-chan… her name is Wilma Bishop, right?" Yoshika asked.

"You know her?" Lynne asked back.

"No... Her group, the "Isle of Wight Detachment Force" protects the English Channel... we were bound to meet." Yoshika said.

Lynne then had a worried face while thinking _'Don't tell me... I haven't heard from sister for quite a while... she didn't... die, did she?'_

"Don't worry." Yoshika said as she understood Lynette's worries. "No Witch died that day." Yoshika answered briefly.

"No Witch... did a Neuroi get destroyed?" Trude asked.

"Good sense of perception there but that's not all... I said [Witches]." Yoshika complimented anyway. "That's right... even if I tried my best not to have any casualties on both sides..." She continued disappointedly.

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_We flew towards the waters._

_Soon we can see the fleet but, of course, the submarine is submerged underwater._

_**"Where should we fire?"**__ Lum asked._

_**"We can't just fire randomly, can we?"**__ Petra said._

_**"Gate what should we do?"**__ Weis asked his partner._

_**"... just wait..."**__ Gates said._

_"I will go underwater and destroy the target..." Yoshika said._

_**"How about us?"**__ Tyr asked._

_"One of you will act as decoy." Yoshika answered._

_**"I'll do it."**__ Macht volunteered._

_"All right... make sure to divert their attention and stay safely out of range." Yoshika ordered._

_**"Will do."**__ He replied._

_Yoshika started to dive downwards as Macht is deactivating his stealth, but to their surprise, Burns deactivated his and went out firing beams._

_**"I ain't listening to some brat! Just fire at 'em!"**__ He shouted as he sank a frigate._

_Another 2 out of the 8, Gate and Weis, followed him and also went firing beams._

_"All of you! Fall back!" Yoshika ordered._

_The 4 trainees and Tyr fall back but the other 3 just charged._

'Idiots!' _Yoshika thought as she flew towards them with stealth._ 'I can't fly fast without deactivating my stealth... what should I do...?' _she thought as she started panicking._

_**"Yoshika! It's enough! Leave it all to them!"**_ _Faust said as he falls back._

_"Fall back!" Yoshika shouted at them._

_The human fleet now fires their cannons in retaliation._

_Most missed even if the Neuroi's are large._

_But some hits caused quite some damage._

_The three, enraged now, didn't hear anything and just kept firing._

'If this goes on, more people will die!' _She thought while panicking._

_Suddenly, there is a humm of magic._

'Witches!' _Yoshika thought, surprised._

_"All of you, fall back!" Yoshika shouted again._

_The 5 Neuroi were watching some distance away._

_The three battling were still enraged and ignored Yoshika._

_Then, with a sharp sound, Gate's armor is pierced._

_With a wail he screeched._

_**"Gate!" **__Weis shouted starting to panic._

'A sniper…' _Yoshika thought as she activated her eye and saw a Witch far away._

_Due to the angle she was at (i.e. she was looking at the Witch head-on), she couldn't see the type of anti-tank rifle the sniper is using._

'I can't see the sniper rifle properly... is it a magic shot? I must get them back alive.' _She thought as she dived into the fray._

_Explosions occur here and there from the missed armaments._

_Another shot from afar came and this time shatters Gate's Core._

_**"Noooooo!"**__ Weis screeched in despair._

_Soon he enters into an enraged state and kept firing everywhere while cursing._

_Yoshika's attempts to make them fall back failed._

_To her surprise, some of the cannon fire from the ship strayed from Weis and Burns._

_Then she noticed... it was firing at the rest of her group._

'Damn it!' _she abandoned the two and flew towards the rest._

_**"Retreat!"**__ She shouted to the rest as Weis too fell to the sniper's shot._

_The 4 trainees were shocked from the incoming attack and soon got stripped off of their stealth._

_Tyr kept calm and assessed the situation, while the trainees in panic flew as fast as they could at any direction._

_**"Wait! Don't panic!"**__ Tyr said in an attempt to calm them down._

_But in their panic, they couldn't think about it and continued their flight path._

_Yoshika that was flying closer to the group was shocked at the dispersing teammates._

_"Regroup and retreat!" She shouted._

_To her surprise, Witches suddenly went and shot at them._

_This surprised the trainees even more and the order was silenced with a barrage of bullets._

_**"Argh!"**__ Lum screeched in pain._

_**"Ugh!"**__ Faust said as he was shot multiple times._

_**"Help me!"**__ Macht screamed as a pair of Witches were hot behind his tail._

'I'm losing control of the situation... I guess I have no choice…' _Yoshika thought to herself._ 'First...'

_She flew towards Tyr and said, "We are retreating..."_

_**"But what about them?"**__ Tyr asked._

_"We will be getting them." Yoshika answered._

_**"How?"**__ Tyr asked again._

_"Knock them out." Yoshika replied._

**'That's not really a plan... but keeping calm in such situation... this human is much better than I expected.'** _Tyr thought at the moment._

_**"I guess I have no choice."**__ Tyr said as he and Yoshika flew towards the panicked Neuroi._

_Flying through the bullets in the air while avoiding each shot Yoshika skillfully flew closer to her targets and with a strong fist to the radar pleghm knocked their system off causing them to doze off._

_[P4nD0rAs' note: Their Core is similar to a supercomputer... brain specifically but acts like an O.S. nonetheless... radar pleghm... the spin off for the human's solar plexus knocks you out! And without the O.S. the comp will shut down... the red markings would disappear and they wouldn't be able to fly.]_

_After knocking them out cold, Yoshika put them into her stealth and brought them to the next one._

_Yoshika got two of them, while Tyr got the other two._

_After they think they are safely hidden, Burns' Core is shattered by the Witches' concentrated attack._

_"All of you go into safety first... I will try to check on the situation a bit more." Yoshika ordered._

_Yoshika who went back saw that in the debris of the destroyed Neuroi's the Witches were still flying happily with their accomplishment._

_However, one of them was still alert._

'I guess that one must have Magic Radar. It would be fine... not even Magic Radar can notice us in stealth.' _Yoshika thought so, but suddenly the sniper Witch shot in their direction._

_Yoshika, though shocked, skillfully dodged it since deflecting it would let them know of their position._

'I'll try to connect to their line.' _Yoshika thought as she tapped into their comm. line._

_"BZZ! BZZZ! What's BZZZ wrong Wilma? BZZZ!"_

_Yoshika heard from their communication channel._

_"Some BZZZ is watching BZ us BZZZ!"_

'This woman must be the sniper... Wilma... I heard of a strong witch from teacher... Wilma Bishop, isn't it...? They said she defeated a Neuroi singlehandedly near Dover... Dover...' _Yoshika winced for a moment, remembering what happened that day and her past accomplishments._

_Suddenly, a few more shots went in Yoshika's direction, but she evaded them all nonetheless._

_From the intercom she can hear._

_"Ther BZZZ nothing there… BZZZ!"_

_"I fe-BZ-t som-BZZZ-ing, I swear!" [I felt something, I swear!]_

'What's with that sniper? Is it instinct? She's not even using a rifle!' _Yoshika thought in surprise as she finally got a good look at the gun the Witch was using._

_[Similar to Eila but Eila is future sight especially on dangers. This one is on target like a tracking system of a missile.]_

'Wilma Bishop...I should remember her name.' _She thought in admiration._

_She then flew toward where the group had hid._

_"Now, let's return." Yoshika said to the group._

_**"But we haven't finished our mission."**__ Tyr commented._

_"I feel that this will not go well... even with a second attempt." Yoshika replied._

_**"But... we'll get punished."**__ Lum said scared._

_**"It's all our fault isn't it…?"**__ Petra said sadly._

_"Don't worry... I'll take full responsibility..." Yoshika consoled them._

**'Hmm... This human is interesting.****'**_Tyr thought to himself._

_They then flew back towards the base._

_'At least no one else should die because of me...'__ she thought as she flew._

_Yoshika braced herself at the sentence she could've got._

_Flashback End_


	12. Chapter 12

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Chapter 12: The Moon Base in the Middle of Space (Flashback Arc Part 2)**

* * *

"Why did you retreat?" Erica asked.

"Yeah... why?" Trude asked too.

"Well... I'm just reluctant to kill." Yoshika answered. "I don't want casualties on both sides, so I retreated." She said.

"What about the higher command?" Minna asked.

"They... did not take it too well." She replied. "I was charged with failure and loss of personnel, so I was to be sentenced."

Everyone was tense about that.

"Don't worry… Tyr helped me out." Yoshika assured them.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Yoshika was standing in front of three screens._

_The three judges; they were the advisors of the Queen._

_They are the second highest rank below the Queen's chosen ones._

_They will be sentencing Yoshika for her failure._

_She's heard of them from Axion but she never knew their names._

_If she's not mistaken, then those three have the same name._

_They discussed between themselves._

_Since she was a human, they discussed for quite a long time._

_Yoshika couldn't really listen to their discussion._

_She only heard bits and pieces, like being taken to Trinity, or being experimented upon._

_But due to ethics issue, they chose for encampment._

_Rehabilitation, they say._

_Before the Verdict was done, Tyr barged into the place._

_**"I'll take care of the kid!"**__ He said._

_**"The judgment is being carried out... it's not a place for you to intervene."**__ The left judge spoke._

_**"Veteran rank... Quite high, and is of an acceptable voice."**__ The right judge spoke._

_Just like above, the left and right judges are the balance, weights, 2 sides which were always parallel._

_The middle judge decides._

_**"He is allowed to voice his mind."**__ Middle judge said._

_**"Thank you for the allowance." **__Tyr said __**"I'll be in charge of this human kid."**_

_**"Take charge... please elaborate."**__ Middle judge spoke._

_**"I am soon moving to the Moon HQ and it wouldn't be bad to have an apprentice."**__ He said._

_**"Preposterous!"**__ Left judge said._

_**"That... is a human."**__ Right judge said._

_**"This kid got my interest... there are no rules anywhere I couldn't right? She's an official, after all." **__He said._

_The judges went for a discussion again._

_Left was always against._

_Right was always with._

_Middle has to make the decision yet again._

_**"I accept you proposition." **__Middle judge said._

_**"I thank you for you magnanimous pardon." **__Tyr thanked them._

_**"Make sure to watch it."**__ Left judge warned._

_**"Take care."**__ Right judge said._

_**"We shall meet soon again... human..."**__ Middle judge said._

_As fast as it begins, the three screens popped out of existence._

_Yoshika, who was stiff from the beginning, exhaled a sigh of relief._

_**"Hey, kid... not the time to feel relieved... come with me."**__ Tyr said._

_Yoshika followed him off and out of the Hive._

_As the two flew, he said, __**"We're going to space."**_

_"What?" I asked, confused._

_**"The moon... it's in space, kid."**__ He said._

_"Space?" I asked yet again._

_**"This will be a long talk..."**__ He sighed._

_He explained to me about outer space._

_No air, no water, no nothing._

_Yoshika thought for a moment that she would die if she didn't breathe._

_Tyr said that she doesn't really need to because of her Core._

_The two will leave in a month so Tyr will train her to feel as if in space._

_He told her that space flight is just the same... __**"Rely on the Core."**__ he said._

_He brought Yoshika to a trench somewhere and dunked her there._

_Yoshika was surprised that she survived that._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"Where were you dunked?" Minna asked, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"In the deepest part of the Marianas Trench… and the deepest part in Earth's oceans… that spot is known as "Challenger's Deep"." Yoshika replied. "It was 10,924 meters under the sea surface... the pressure was huge. It feels like being crushed, but strangely enough, I don't get crushed. It feels strange but I don't need to breathe either. I still breathe because I'm used to it, but I don't need air or food in my Neuroi form."

"You don't need to breathe!?" Luchinni thought out loud surprised and so is everyone.

"Well, yea~ I don't really need air in my Neuroi form." Yoshika clarified.

"Interesting body condition." Ursula muttered.

"If you want to know, ask me later, Ursula." Yoshika said. "So as I said... I am going to the moon…"

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_Yoshika managed to tell those three about this thing._

_They said they had heard of it and wished her luck._

_She was sure they are really worried for her._

_Little did she know... that this will possibly be her biggest misfortune and at the same time her most fortunate event._

* * *

_The first several days at the moon were strange._

_It took some time to travel to the moon._

_At speed of averagely 21,000mph, the two reached the moon base in around 3 days._

_Control in space is much harder._

_There is neither pressure nor resistance._

_It took quite some time to get the feeling._

_It took Yoshika a week to get used to it before she could fly freely in space._

_Of course, Tyr was always teaching her things._

_He said she's quite a fast learner for a first timer._

_He then began teaching her battle techniques that she got used to, taught her strategic thinking and critical thinking, as well as different ways of thinking for different situations._

_Other than that, Yoshika had almost nothing to do._

_For field training, he took her to hunt space pirates and sometimes through the warp portal into Abyssius, the borderline planet._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"Abyssius!?" Ursula exclaimed. "What's with the strange name?"

"It's the translation from their native language. Elves live there in seclusion after all... I pity them to be forced to fight." I said to them. "Ah..! About the universe and the other races I will have to stay silent. It is against the Inter-Universal Information Law that forbids beings lower than Class 3 to have knowledge of other beings, so I am sorry that I can't say anything anymore and can only tell my own experience." Yoshika explained to them as they nod for her to continue her story.

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_It was fine and all till around a year ago when Yoshika was halfway done with her sentence._

_That time Tyr was about to go on a vacation. He said he needs to return to his real body in the outskirts of Gramarye._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"WHAT!?" Everyone shouted at the same time in shock.

"Real body?" Trude asked.

"The Neuroi that we've been fighting weren't in their real bodies?!" Ursula asked.

"Then what are they?" Mio asked

"Calm down!" I told them as they breathed air to calm themselves.

"I guess that I can explain... Neuroi that we have fought with is their army not citizens... using a neurotic channel through their Core, they operate these frames... to act as their temporal body. Their real body is in a frozen state stored some cryogenic tank." I explained what I learnt. "If their Core is destroyed, they will die."

"How about the original body?"

"It'll stay frozen till a new Core is made for it... or it will be disposed of"

"What do they look like? What are their features? What can they do?" Ursula starts asking torrents of questions.

"That I cannot say... can I get on with things?" I asked to which the others nod again.

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_**"Yo kid~ you've been doing well!"**__ Tyr called out to Yoshika that day._

_"Ah! Veteran-sama! I thank you for your compliments!" she replied as respectfully as possible._

_**"... Don't need the formalities with me, kiddo... it feels strange."**__ He said._

_"Then it's fine with me." she replied happily. "So what is it?"_

_**"I'm going on a leave quite a while."**__ He said, which surprised her._

_"But... you're supposed to take charge of me... what can I do while you're gone?" Yoshika asked._

_**"Don't worry kid~ we got a replacement... some higher up kinda interested in you."**__ He said._

_"What race is he?" she asked, in case the person coming is not a Neuroi which she's gotten used to._

_**"Don't worry kid, the man coming to see you is not a Neuroi. He's a Klarentine much similar to you humans." **__He said._

_"Klarentine... Kalrent... The desert planet? The one in alliance with the Queen?" she asked, remembering the facts._

_**"Yea... it's the prince himself."**__ He said._

_"P...P... P... Prince!?" Yoshika stuttered, utterly shocked._

_**"Oops... not supposed to say that~"**__ He said in a cheerful tone._

_"You're just putting more pressure on me right? Hey, Tyr?" she said to him as he gone all quiet._

_Now that Yoshika heard it... It's too quiet... but it soon changed as an explosion shook the whole base. She barely got her footing as not to fall since the Hive is now at 45 degree tilt._

_Alarms blare as everyone rushed outside. Yoshika and Tyr too rushed out in silence. The two are too tense to neither speak nor joke._

_When the two got outside... all they see is the King's fleet. Said to be his 583rd Squadron. The 'Purple Gramm'. With three hives at their back they started to assault the moon base._

_This was the beginning of the war._

_The war on the dark side of the moon... the hopeless battle..._

_Flashback End_


	13. Chapter 13

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Chapter 13: On the Dark side of the Moon (Flashback Arc Part 3)**

* * *

"I keep hearing the king... who is he anyway?" Erica asked.

"Oh! Right... The purple king, Zeta..." Yoshika said. "He is a mad person... beyond insane..."

"What?" Perrine asked, not understanding.

"He... is addicted to power... so he strives to enslave all of universe." Yoshika explained.

"He thinks than he is an ultimate being and people under him deserve the highest." Yoshika explained further.

"He thinks that he is a god?" Trude asked.

"You could say that too." Yoshika replied. "Also, the king and queen… those are just names. They don't mean that the two of 'em are married like kings and queens on Earth."

"So what's the meaning?" Minna asked.

"They refer to the strongest person male as a king and a female as a queen."

"Right... I still don't get the difference between a male and female Neuroi." Ursula said.

"It's kind of hard to know at first sight." Yoshika replied.

"How do you know?" Luchinni asked.

"Hmmm... I guess males are much bulkier with a thick armor while females are much smaller but faster."

"So what happens next?" Trude asked.

"Right... where was I... they came faster than we can detect them..."

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_BOOOOOOOOM!_

_A big beam fired at the hive causing a big explosion as it hits the armor._

_Startled, everyone went into a state of panic._

_Some were slightly panicked, but the others were heavily panicked._

_Emergency siren was called as all personnel rushed out._

_I too flew with Tyr out._

_To my surprise, there are Neuroi hives that are attacking us and they were purple._

_"That's..." I mumbled at the sight._

_**"Kid... That's the king's forces."**__ Tyr said grimly._

_BOOOOM!_

_Another explosion rang as the battle began._

_Beams were being fired everywhere in all directions._

_The scenery was dyed in red and purple._

_The sounds of shattering bodies can be heard._

_Both sides are losing people._

_The hives then start producing new Neuroi to replace them._

_Flashback Pause_

* * *

"Replace?" Mio asked.

"Ah... Neuroi Cores are connected to their sources... the hive." Yoshika explained. "They have a reincarnation system... as long as they are not destroyed too fast or damaged too badly, they can reform in the hive to be dispatched once more."

"So we are fighting an endless battle?" Trude asked.

"Not really... sometimes by a small percentage, the destroyed Neuroi Core couldn't be reformed." Yoshika answered.

"So?" Perrine asked.

"We are getting destroyed slowly unless there are reinforcements." Yoshika clarified. "Now with the story..."

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_As the battles intensify, Tyr and Yoshika, along with a few dozen of their own Neuroi tried to do a rear attack._

_At least try to destroy a hive as Tyr said._

_It could even the battle._

_But as they came closer, the hive's defense system kicks in._

_Some of the attacking Neuroi also returned to defend the hive._

_Yoshika evaded some beams but some more came._

_Tyr too did the same._

_"What should I do?" Yoshika shouted in the confusion._

_**"Do as usual kid! Don't panic!"**__ Tyr shouted back as he fired beams towards the incoming forces._

_The group sent beams firing towards the enemy._

_Once in a while a party would lose a person._

_Tyr and Yoshika however, attacked with such precision that they are actually succeeding to scatter the defense forces leaving the enemy hive vulnerable._

_**"NOW! Everyone, ATTACK!" **__Tyr ordered._

_Everyone fires their beams at the hive._

_Explosions can be heard across the moon surface as the barrage of beams hit the hive._

_But to no avail..._

_The hive fires back in retaliation._

_Thousands of purple beams fill the dark space._

_Half of the attacking forces were destroyed._

_Remnants of the defense forces too were decimated._

_Yoshika, with her small body, evaded all of them, but Tyr lost a wing._

_"Tyr!" Yoshika shouted._

_**"Don't worry 'bout me, kid! Here comes another one!" **__He said as he regenerates and the hive fires again._

_Another barrage passes by._

_Yoshika turned her body hard to dodge the attack._

_At that moment she saw the battlefront not so far._

_Our hives were under heavy fire._

_Even though its attack brought down hundreds of enemies, a thousand more came to replace them._

'This battle is too one-sided.'_ Yoshika thought._

_I looked at our forces._

_Out of the number of people we had, we now only had around a dozen._

_We couldn't continue attacking._

_"Everyone retreat! Ask for reinforcements from earth!" Yoshika shouted._

_The Neuroi that heard that fall silent._

_**"The kid's right! We can't force it! Come on! Skip with it!"**__ Tyr shouted._

_**"But...**__" One of them tried to say._

_**"We'll hold them off!"**__ He said interrupting them._

_I was stunned for a moment._

_I didn't think he'll actually approve of it._

_The Neuroi then flew back to the hive._

_And now me and him will cover their retreat._

_**"It's coming!"**__ Tyr shouted as he starts maneuvering to evade._

_I however did not move._

_**"Hey kid!" **__Tyr shouted._

'Those retreating could be hit if I evade...' _I thought._

_So I'll protect them._

_I raised my hands in front of me._

'I hope I didn't get rusty…_' I hoped to myself._

_I focused my magic to create a shield._

_A shield did form but to my surprise, it is black and there was no insignia._

'What is this…?' _I thought for a moment but was brought back to reality as a barrage of beams hit the shield._

_"Ugh..." I said while straining myself to hold the shield._

_It seems that a huge margin of the attacks were deflected by my new shield._

_**"Not bad, kid."**__ Tyr said at my side._

_**"Why not use it from just now?"**__ He asked._

_"Never thought it up till now." I said back tiredly._

_**"Incoming!"**__ He shouted._

_I looked back and saw that the retreating Neuroi were all out of range._

_So I evaded the beams._

_"Let's attack!" I shouted._

_**"Sure."**__ Tyr replied._

_We maneuvered through the incoming lasers._

_It got harder as we got closer to the enemy hive._

_We aimed at the same position._

_A part of the armor is our main target._

_Locking on to the position, we fired a barrage of beams._

_Our beams are slowly melting the armor._

_But the battle in the horizon isn't going so well._

_One of our hives is on the brink of destruction._

_Its armor was all battered._

_**"Hey kid! Do that..."**__ Tyr shouted._

_"What?! But I can't do it well yet!" I shouted back._

_**"Sure~ materialization is easy!"**__ He shouted again._

_"Well... it's not for me... Incoming!" I shouted back._

_It is somewhat a lucky thing that the hive itself destroyed most of the defending forces._

_We, slowly but surely, were destroying the hive._

_We somewhat attracted a lot of attention._

_When the armor is melted and a huge hole formed, half of the attacking forces returned to destroy us._

_I strained my body to fly through complicated movements._

_Tyr sometimes got scraped by incoming beams._

_I, with my small body, can easily evade._

_But because of that, neither of us can fire at the hive._

'I'll at least use that...' _I thought._

_I focused my beams but this time I also focused my magic._

'Hope it works.' _I hoped in my heart._

_I fired, aiming at the enemy forces around me._

_Yellow beams fired around me._

_Though quite small, each yellow beam pierced an enemy Neuroi, destroyed its Core, before finding a new target._

_The dark sky that was filled with purple beams was now filled with golden yellow light._

_A sound of shattered Cores resounds all around the area._

_I looked around and saw that I managed to get at least a thousand._

_Tyr then shot a beam at the hive's Core and shattered it._

_A loud shattering sound can be heard everywhere._

_Around a quarter and a half of the enemy defending Neuroi shattered as their hive was destroyed._

_Tyr then flew near me._

_**"Not bad, kid."**__ He said to me._

'Ah, right...' _I tried to reply but can't._

'Ah...' _my vision got blurry._

_The world turns upside down, and I passed out._

* * *

_I soon wake up._

_I was lying on a surface._

_It's not the hive._

_I can still see the endlessly starry sky._

_Tyr came close and asked, __**"You alright, kid?"**_

_"Ah...yeah... just tired..." I replied._

_**"Is that so? Then rest for a while."**__ He said._

_"Where am I?" I asked._

_**"In a crater... hope they couldn't find us." **__Tyr answered. __**"Rest, kid... we need ya."**_

_"Ah... right..." I said as I fell into a deep sleep._

_It's a shame that I woke up to a huge explosion._

_**"Woke up, kid?"**__ Tyr asked._

_"Yeah..." I replied._

_**"They found us."**__ Tyr said._

_"I knew that." I said as I looked at a few dozen Neuroi going in our direction._

_**"It seems we got their attention."**__ Tyr said._

_"We don't have a choice do we?" I said as I floated upwards._

_I activated my right eye._

_It felt different for some reason._

_I can see much further._

_I see the Neuroi that were coming and located their Cores._

_Using the eye also is less draining than before._

'Maybe should I try?'

_I held my hands to my front and charged a beam._

_Again, I put my magic into it._

_This time, rather that homing, I wanted penetration power._

'So... lightning.'

_Electricity crackled in my arms._

_I imagined a strong vision._

_A bow formed in front of me._

_**"I knew you could do it."**__ Tyr said._

'Yeah, right...' _I thought to myself sarcastically._

_My head hurts from the amount of concentration._

_I made my electric charged beam into arrows._

_Power radiates to the surrounding as I notched my bow._

_I launched a volley._

_The arrows flew at a normal speed before suddenly bursting into lightning._

_They arched and pierced their targets with perfect precision._

'Once more…'

_I notched my bow again, and launched another volley._

_The incoming Neuroi couldn't even evade._

_As soon as they saw the light, their Cores have been pierced._

_**"There's still around a dozen left, kid."**__ Tyr warned._

_Huff… huff..._

_My breathing gets ragged._

_**"You okay kid?"**__ He asked._

_"Yeah... huff... huff..." I replied tiredly._

_I notched the bow in my hand and tried to launch another volley._

_But due to a ringing headache, the bow disintegrated and the arrows disappeared._

_**"Don't worry kid... we'll just do it the normal way." **__Tyr said as he fired a beam to one of them destroying them._

_I too flew towards the dozen of Neuroi and fired beams._

_With my eye still active, I destroyed each one of them with ease._

_Soon nothing can be seen._

_My head stops hurting and it seems my body is fine._

_"Let's go..." I said._

_**"Sure~ one down, two to go."**__ Tyr said._

_They headed to the super hive._

_As they flew towards it Tyr warned Yoshika._

_**"Hey kid!"**__ Tyr called._

_"What is it?" I asked._

_**"A super hive is different from a normal hive… just be careful."**_

_"I heard of it but what's different?"_

_**"You'll see for yourself." **__He said._

_We went to the front line._

_Red and Purple beams flew left and right, up and down._

_"Join in the fray?" I asked._

_**"Nope... again, target the hive."**__ Tyr said firing beams._

_We flew towards the huge hive with a pretty good momentum._

_Thinking that they actually destroyed a hive boosted my confidence._

_To my surprise, the hive in front of me changed shape._

_It changed into a shape similar to a mace._

_But strangely, a small wing was attached in the middle of its body._

'It must be a symbol.' _she thought for a moment._

_To her surprise, that symbol turned purple._

_**"Evade!"**__ Tyr shouted._

_Yoshika wondered why; she couldn't see anything._

'What's to evade?' _she thought._

_To her horror, an area of the battlefield was destroyed completely._

_Enemy and friendly forces alike were crushed in an instant._

_"What was that!?" I shouted._

_Tyr answered, __**"It's a lv2 weapon... we don't have one equipped here."**_

_**"Incoming!" **__He shouted._

_Lasers, much more than a normal hive can fire, filled the dark sky._

_All around, I can only see purple beams._

_Tyr got cut in half._

_Luckily, his Core is not damaged and he starts regenerating._

_**"Ouch, that hurts..."**__ He complained._

_Then a strange thing happened._

_A siren sounded._

_"Now what?!" I said in panicked voice._

_**"Don't worry kid. You'll learn about our weapons in time."**__ He said._

_**"For now, let's retreat."**_

_I couldn't say anything._

_I followed him back to our hive._

_It seems that the battle was suspended for a while._

'It's around a week, I guess...' _she thought calculating the time of her battles._

'Time flies fast, doesn't it…? How can we defeat that...?' _she thought to herself._

_She looked at the menacing shape from afar._

_Flashback End_

* * *

P4Nd0RaS Here!

Reviews! Please!

To all people that are still confused, please don't worry.

It will be gradually explained bit by bit until chapter 14.

I took this over after chapter 4 so for anything below those chapters message Sky EXE for any complaints.

Look forward to Yoshika's newfound powers!

If you want an explanation on her specs... I'll make a chapter 14.5 just for you.

If you think that her power is overkill, she is WEAK 4 years ago and trained hard.

To those lazy people out there understand that training makes you stronger and this kid over here trained really hard!

She deserves power from her efforts, her naive yet kind heart!


	14. Chapter 14

**The Witch of the Neuroi**

**Chapter 14: Dash Forth! Takemikazuchi! (Flashback Arc Final)**

* * *

"So... how did you defeat it?" Trude asked with excitement.

"What happened after that?" Luchinni asked.

"Yes... I'm quite curious…" Sanya said.

"So am I." Erica added.

"Wait... I'm finishing my story." Yoshika said.

"You became a commander after that battle?" Minna asked.

"Yes." Yoshika answered.

"What happened to Tyr?" Lynne asked.

"Listen to my story and you'll know." Yoshika said. "Where did I stop... yeah we retreated towards the hive..."

* * *

_Flashback Resume_

_We flew from the battlefield into the hive._

_It was a slight refuge from the battles I have done._

_I was tired, both physically and mentally._

_Many Neuroi were destroyed completely over the span of the battle._

_Time flies fast... very fast..._

_I heard some say that this is a hopeless cause._

_Some have given up..._

_Some don't see hope anymore…_

_But I waited..._

_Those three should be coming about now._

_Coming in a small group like me is easy._

_Bringing a fleet, however, is not._

_I suppose they are flying towards us right now._

_Yeah... I'll just believe in them._

_I dozed off for a while._

_I woke up to a bombardment._

_It seems the super hive has started its onslaught once again._

_"Hey... Tyr..." I called out to him. "What's that?" I asked pointed at the super hive._

_**"That kid... is a super hive... specifically, a Valkyria-type Battleship-class."**__ He said._

_"Val... kyria... type?" I asked._

_**"It's a name... but a name..."**__ He said._

_**"See those wings?"**__ He asked._

_"Yea... the ornaments…" I said._

_**"Those aren't ornaments... they're weapons."**__ He said._

_"Weapons? Those small things?" I asked._

_**"Small... yes, but it's dangerous... I couldn't believe that bastard would send one here... right now..."**__ Tyr said._

_"Who's this bastard?" I asked._

_**"Who else... that king... the purple king Zeta…"**_

_"Zeta?"_

_**"It's his name... the name of the mad king..."**__ He said grimly._

_"Why... why does he do all of this?" I asked._

_**"It's his form of entertainment..."**__ He said._

_"What? Is this a sick joke?!" I exclaimed, getting mad._

_**"He... wishes to rule... everything."**__ He said again._

_"Just for that... just for that... all this death and destruction..." I said choking on myself._

_**"Yea kid... the truth ain't that nice."**__ he said. __**"Not that we need to worry about now... incoming!"**_

_The explosions intensified._

_Tyr flew out and I followed suit._

_**"Kid..."**__ He said to me._

_"What..." I said still a bit pissed._

_**"We have no choice... we have to destroy that."**__ He said._

_"But... how?" I asked._

_**"Like the hive last time."**__ He said._

_"Fine…" I answered._

_We sped up fast._

_We ignored the artillery barrage that was shot towards us._

_They were bulky and huge, but they were slow... very slow indeed._

_We evaded them with ease._

_I activated my eye again._

_I see the whole defense line._

_It was now a tactical strategy._

_It seems half were set on defense and the other half to destroy the enemy._

_Quite a flexible tactic._

_I aimed at each of them._

_I fired at them._

_I made sure to use lasers to penetrate them and not incinerate them, remembering what those three told me about the difference between beams and lasers._

* * *

_Flashback in a Flashback Start_

_**"Here's the difference between beams and lasers, Yoshika."**__ Axion said._

_He fired a beam and destroyed a piece of metal._

_He then fired a laser and cut up the metal._

_**"Beams destroy... destroying one's Core with this will have a higher probability of killing them."**__ he said. __**"Lasers can't kill... so we rarely use them."**_

_"I've never see one used against us..." I said to him._

_**"Beams and Lasers have no difference to you humans." **__Ixia said at the side._

_**"So we prefer beams~"**__ Xalia added._

_Flashback in a Flashback End_

* * *

_I don't have to kill them... I just have to pierce their Cores..._

_I focused numerous beams and narrowed them down._

_Into the dark empty sky… the second battle begins… and I draw first blood._

_Red lasers shoot out from my palms and Strikers and sped off towards the attacking forces._

_With my eye active, I shot at each Core with absolute precision._

_The lasers pierced the armor of them pretty easily._

_Shattering of bodies can be heard here and there._

_Our forces and theirs start firing._

_I noticed that our morale might have increased a bit._

_Though I am human... my might was acknowledged._

_Then... I'll just have to make a bigger show!_

_The dark sky was once more covered in red and purple._

* * *

_We fought this seemingly endless battle._

_One after another, enemies fall before my path._

_But more just have to come._

_I hid in moon craters from time to time to rest myself, making sure no one notices me resting._

_I couldn't afford to be attacked._

_We were getting pushed back._

_The battlefront is moving closer towards our hives._

_We need another direct attack._

_I was about to ask Tyr, but after looking at him commanding the forces in the front lines, it's better not to disturb it._

_So I thought that I'll do it myself._

_Rather than flying, I walked towards the enemy hive._

_From crater to crater I walked under the enemy forces, making sure that I wasn't detected._

_Closer and closer to the super hive with its intimidating strength._

'Sigh... it was going well until now..._' I thought as I arrived under the hive._

_I am hiding in a small crater and it seems like nobody noticed me._

_I watched more and more Neuroi exit the hive to continue battling._

_So I chose my first target: the production facility._

_I activated my eyes yet again._

_I aimed well..._

_Rather than penetration, I needed explosive power._

_So I tried to use materialization again._

_But this time, I needed something big... something powerful._

_I imagined a halberd._

_A black halberd formed at her palm._

'Now... fire…'

_The black halberd lit up in flames._

_It slowly turned red..._

_She too is never sure either it changed color to color of flames or melting metal._

_As magic hummed, it seems that the enemies noticed her presence._

_Some of the recently produced Neuroi came into her direction._

_She rushed her work and threw the halberd with all her strength._

'Please work...' she hoped.

_The halberd clad in fire flew towards the group at a high speed._

_As it passed, the group of Neuroi melted completely._

_Feeling hopeful, I watched the halberd as it flew towards the facility gates._

_The halberd soon was a tiny speck of light._

_There is a thud sound but nothing happened._

'I failed... huh?' _I thought as I readied myself to retreat._

_**KA-BLAM!**_

_A big explosion resounded._

_The hive tilted to the side from the explosion._

_After the debris and dust settled, the gate was a lump of molten metal._

'No existing regeneration yet...' _I thought as I watched the gates cool down slowly._

'This is a success!'

_I flew back towards our hive._

'At least I delayed them.' _I thought._

_When I returned to the hive, Tyr was looking for me._

_He asked, __**"Where have you been gone, kid?"**_

_**"I need a lot of hands here."**__ He said._

_"I delayed their forces a bit... couldn't you be a little bit happier?" I said irritated._

_**"That's great, but it's just prolonging our battle."**__ He replied._

_**"Look... we're at yet another stalemate."**__ He said as the screen popped up._

_It seems the battle stopped yet again._

_The purple forces are set out defending and attacking them at this state is useless._

_It seems they would now be more aware of surprise attacks._

* * *

_The help came at the most unexpected time._

_The prince that was about to visit me a few days ago was now here with his own "Knights" in the human language._

_His group of eight wielded insanely strong swords._

_The eight marched into battle destroying the enemy Neuroi fleet like it was paper._

_Though the sheer production capabilities of the enemy hive is enough to hinder them off._

_The prince himself seems to want to fight and was, for multiple times, stopped by his advisor clad in black._

_I got into an actual conversation with him. As the war rages on and destruction ensues, we spoke on a small round table filled with pastries and cakes similar to our own. Strangely, what I originally thought was tea was actually juice and tasted like apples. Avalon juice they call it. It seemed that some of the languages we have also have something in common. Culture, life and features are similar perfectly like a human. The only difference is battle strength._

_They are invulnerable. Their skins could not be pierced unless with their own nail and fangs._

_Their strength is unimaginable, but is the one that allows them to wield their abominable huge swords the size of a Neuroi into battle._

_The prince was said to be the strongest. So strong that he cleaved a few solar systems into two halves just because of a mistake. So strong that his battle prowess equals or possibly above the King and Queen themselves. Luckily the prince that rules the planet is a pacifist and wishes for peace._

_I made sure to show no disrespect at all to him which makes him start to lose interest in me. He always spoke to his advisor in Black._

_After that conversation, I returned to battle but to be ordered to attack the Battleship with the others._

_The plan was quite simple: The knights will occupy the hives as we destroy their main weapon._

* * *

_So we regrouped. The last hundreds of our forces will try and destroy the target. If it all fails the prince himself will make a move._

_I was kind of relieved as I saw Tyr among the people going._

_We moved as fast as we could towards the towering battleship._

_In the horizon, we can see swords moving at fast speed cutting up the incoming Neuroi but more keep coming._

_I remembered one of the skills I tried to develop. A sword based skill... but that thought escapes me quickly as we engaged the battleship._

_The melting hangar was now fixed as more and more forces spewed out._

_The sky is now clad in red and purple once more._

_Our numbers quickly started to fall as our fleet was slowly destroyed._

_I was starting to panic. Tyr and the other high command were issuing a retreat._

_We couldn't win like this..._

'Do I have no choice? Must I use [that]?' _She thought as she kept avoiding the barrage of beams aimed at her from the Valkyria-type Neuroi._

'I haven't trained enough for its usage to be in the safety margin…'

_Beams keep firing and more Neuroi started closing in on her._

_Even though she fired her magic beams, more Neuroi reinforcements spawned and Yoshika sensed that she was about to be overwhelmed soon._

'I guess I have no choice.'

_She stopped suddenly._

_She expanded a big barrier in front of her._

'This should hold for a bit.'

_The barrage of beams firing erratically now focused on the barrier._

'I can't make a mistake!'

_"Materialize." she said as her magic formed a sword hilt._

'Sharpen.'

_The moment she thought, from the hilt came out a slab of rock using the power of Earth… an image of a mountain... unmovable... shattering strength._

'Sharpen.'

_She thought again and the sword became bigger and sharpened._

_The power of Flames molded the earth to form a sharp blade._

_The power of Wind cools down the blade and gives it a cutting edge._

_The power of Water allows it to move in fluid motion._

'Sharpen.'

_She kept visualizing hard and soon she had her magic blade ready._

_Her magic blade is sharp... it can cut through anything._

'I succeeded... but...'

_She thought to herself as she maintains both her shield and gripped her huge katana._

'More...'

_As magic hummed in the air, all attacks against her were deflected by the sheer amount of magic in the vicinity._

'Charge...'

_She thought as crackles of lightning forms on the blade._

_The blade she was holding started emitting a pale blue light._

_"IKKKEEEEEE! TAKEMIKAZUCHI!" She shouted._

_She swung the sword downwards as multiple Neuroi tried to evade, only to be consumed in its wave._

_The battleship and the remaining Neuroi fleet fired a last attempt beam. A purple beam so large, that it could've destroyed a base completely._

_The beam that fired at her shield was cut magnificently in half._

_The hive couldn't evade as it fires its beam._

_If it stopped firing, the blade would've come down fast as lightning._

_It simply cannot evade the fate of destruction._

_"CUT THROUGH!" Yoshika shouts as her blade stopped for a moment after hitting the outer armor of the hive._

_But the sword she held sliced from the top of the hive to the bottom._

_The Core that was positioned in the bottom is cut in half and shatters._

_With the destruction of the super hive, most of the enemy forces which weren't destroyed shattered as well._

_The battle continued but now in the red queen's forces' favor._

_Though she did it... that careless thought of victory was a costly mistake; a remaining Neuroi fired a single beam at her before it was destroyed._

_Without a shield or a barrier, her body was hit with the sheer force._

_Though at a Neuroified form she has some kind of resistance, she could feel that it pierced her completely._

_She started floating downwards towards the lunar surface._

_Yoshika, though having a lot of magic, expended most of her energy with that one strike and couldn't stay awake anymore._

_She is tired._

_Half of her body was blown off... possibly permanently._

_Blood drips down from her head to the cheek._

_Her right eye was completely destroyed._

_She doesn't even have enough magic left to heal herself._

_Her Core's healing functions aren't activating, since she overloaded her Core with that last strike._

_She starts getting blurry through her remaining eye._

_The hilt she held dropped onto the moon's surface and shattered with a loud sound similar to a broken glass._

_In the background, she can hear someone calling her name._

'Who... is it...' _she thought as she is losing consciousness._

_She used her last remaining strength to at least look at the direction the sound came from._

_She turned her body around but could see nothing._

_After a few seconds, three shapes came into her view._

'Ah... it's those three...' _She thought before she lost her consciousness completely._

_Flashback End_

* * *

"So? What happened after that?" Trude asked excitedly after Yoshika closed the screen.

"Trude~ you're getting too excited again!" Erica said.

"Ah... excuse me..." Trude said after a slight blush.

"Sugoi na... Yoshika-chan..." Lynne said in admiration.

"Umm... it was a splendid battle." Minna commented.

"How did you get so strong?" Sanya asked.

"Training hard, I guess…" Yoshika answered.

"After all, training is the best form of self-improvement!" Mio said proudly.

"Right! The ending!" I said suddenly.

"I was hit by an attack at the last moment right?" I asked them if they listened and they nodded seriously but interested of what happened.

"I was brought into a medical facility. The prince and the Queen told them to save me. Yes... a fact that at first surprised me too." I said.

"My powers were limited so as not to burden the body. As of now I am healing fine. The two Cores that act as my nervous system are reconstructing my nerves even as we speak, although slowly... I will be fine in about three or four years." I told them as they widened their eyes. "The damage I sustained was intense... the right half of my face was virtually gone, along with my right eye." I turned my head to the left and allowed the flesh on the right side of my face to part, revealing a small Neuroi Core along with my partially repaired right eye. Everybody in the room was shocked. I then closed the flesh around that area. "The small Core there is what's currently healing my eye. If you look closely, my right eye is a few shades off from my left. It hasn't completely healed yet, and I am currently color-blind in that eye."

"You can still fight even in that condition?!" Perrine asked.

"I am now the strategist… but if the need arises, I can stand in the battlefield... it raises the morale, after all..." I replied.

"Now that the story is over with... I have someone I have to introduce to you all." I said as they focused on me again.

I raised my hand and connected to my direct line with the queen. A screen forms in front of me as the queens voice asked **"What is it Yoshika? It's only been a few days."**

"My queen." I said as I bowed at the screen. The other Witches and humans in the room tensed as they watched the black screen.

**"Yoshika... What is this?"** She asked in confusion.

"I have established communication with the humans and will be arranging them to know the truth." I replied

**"I shall approve of this if the others ask... then I suppose an introduction is in order."** She said.


End file.
